Abstract
The purpose of this review was to: (1) locate all exercise treatment studies of fibromyalgia (FM) patients from 1988 through 2005, (2) present in tabular format the key details of each study and (3) to provide a summary and evaluation of each study for exercise and health outcomes researchers.Exercise intervention studies in FM were retrieved through Cochrane Collaboration Reviews and key word searches of the medical literature, conference proceedings and bibliographies. Studies were reviewed for inclusion using a standardized process. A table summarizing subject characteristics, exercise mode, timing, duration, frequency, intensity, attrition and outcome variables was developed. Results, conclusions and comments were made for each study. Forty-six exercise treatment studies were found with a total of 3035 subjects. The strongest evidence was in support of aerobic exercise a treatment prescription for fitness and symptom and improvement. In general, the greatest effect and lowest attrition occurred in exercise programs that were of lower intensity than those of higher intensity. Exercise is a crucial part of treatment for people with FM. Increased health and fitness, along with symptom reduction, can be expected with exercise that is of appropriate intensity, self-modified, and symptom-limited. Exercise and health outcomes researchers are encouraged to use the extant literature to develop effective health enhancing programs for people with FM and to target research to as yet understudied FM subpopulations, such as children, men, older adults, ethnic minorities and those with common comorbidities of osteoarthritis and obesity.
Highlights
Exercise has been suggested as a treatment for FM since Moldofsky first demonstrated that fit people were less likely to develop FM symptoms when their stages 3 and 4 sleep was intentionally disrupted [5]
Studies are listed in chronological order by year
The following paragraphs summarize the findings by each column in the table
Summary
Exercise has been suggested as a treatment for FM since Moldofsky first demonstrated that fit people were less likely to develop FM symptoms when their stages 3 and 4 sleep was intentionally disrupted [5]. The first exercise intervention in FM was published in 1988 and since that time a large number of clinical trials have been reported. A number of exercise intervention reviews have been published over the years [8-10]. All of them offer valuable synthesis and critiques based on the authors' expertise They are limited somewhat in comprehensiveness and do not provide descriptions and critiques of each individual study that could be helpful to an exercise or health outcomes researcher who wishes to extend the scope of knowledge in the area. The purpose of this review paper is to present a comprehensive evidence table of exercise studies with the anticipation that this individual study tabular format and accompanying comments will be useful to exercise and health outcomes researchers seeking to apply their expertise to FM clinical populations
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