Article

Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) experience symptoms over a long period
of time impacting their quality of life (QoL). Patients are often treated in
multimodal programmes that combine physical and cognitive treatment modalities.
Purpose of this study was to identify prognostic factors of effectiveness of a
multimodal programme. METHOD: A prospective study was performed with a group of
87 patients with FM who had participated in a multimodal programme. The Revised
Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire
(FIQ) were used. Criterion for clinically relevant improvement was a decline in
total FIQ score of 12.5 points or more after the treatment programme.
Investigated determinants of improvement of QoL were patient characteristics,
illness perceptions (IP) and QoL at baseline. RESULTS: QoL of 34 patients with FM
made a clinically relevant improvement after the programme. There was no
difference in age, number of years with pain, number of years diagnosed or IP
compared to the group that did not improve. The group of patients with an
improved QoL after the programme reported severe impact on daily living, highest
intensity of pain and most depression at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Total FIQ score
on QoL, intensity of pain, morning tiredness and depression can be used as
prognostic factors to pre-select patients with FM for a multimodal treatment. IP
were not adequate to predict treatment outcome. An intensive multimodal programme
seemed most suitable for patients with severe symptoms and limitations.

Langue : ANGLAIS