Effects of muscle stretching and physical conditioning as physical therapy treatment for patients with fibromyalgia

Objective: To investigate the effects of muscle stretching exercises and physical conditioning as physical therapy treatment for fibromyalgia. Methods: Fifteen women with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia in accordance with the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology were evaluated and divided into two groups: Group 1 (G1, eight patients) underwent treatment consisting of muscle stretching and Group 2 (G2, seven patients), participated in a physical conditioning program. Sleep quality, pain-modulating factors, associated symptoms and medications used were evaluated, Furthermore, the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) was applied to evaluate the impact of fibromyalgia. The treatment lasted for eight weeks, with one session per week of 40 to 45 minutes in duration. The FIQ data obtained before and after treatment were analyzed by means of Student's t test for dependent samples (alpha < 0.05) and other variables were analyzed descriptively. Results: Most of the patients presented poor quality of sleep (86.67%). Many presented worsening of their pain when doing domestic tasks (40%) and there were no factors that relieved their pain (28.57%). All presented sleep disorders with associated symptoms (100%) and most used antidepressives (69.23%). For the FIQ data, statistically significant differences were observed in morning tiredness (p = 0.0428) and stiffness (p = 0.0130) among the G1 patients. Conversely, no difference was observed in G2 after the treatment. Conclusions: It is suggested that the muscle stretching may have had a positive impact on fibromyalgia, with reductions in morning tiredness and stiffness among the patients evaluated.