Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of the AVACEN Treatment Method (ATM) at improving pain symptoms in fibromyalgia patients.

Methods: Twenty female and two male participants (26 to 76 years; M=48 years) diagnosed with fibromyalgia, were randomized into two groups. Group A (n=5) underwent one 10 min therapeutic warming session daily, and Group B (n=17 started, n=14 completed) underwent two 15 min warming sessions daily. The following endpoints were evaluated (a total of 10): widespread pain index (WPI), patient global impression of change, tender point counts (TPC), fibromyalgia impact questionnaire, Beck depression inventory, fatigue severity ratings, cognitive symptom severity, symptom severity score (SS) and weekly pain intensity ratings. Additional unconventional exploratory analysis of HRV and cytokines was performed to observe perception correlations of the participants.

Results: The daily 10 min warming sessions, resulted in a decrease in widespread pain and weekly pain intensity symptoms for the majority of participants in Group A. Increasing the treatment to two 15 min sessions daily demonstrated a pronounced reduction of pain symptoms for the participants in Group B. Data were analyzed with either a paired t-test, or the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The pre- and post-treatment data for Group B indicated a statistically significant reduction (p=0.05) in TPC, WPI, and SS scores. Inspections of HRV and Cytokines found no statistically significant data. No adverse events were reported.

Discussion: These results provide the first indications that the ATM has a statistically significant effect on the key scientifically recognized fibromyalgia diagnosis metrics of WPI, TPC and SS.

Keywords: Fibromyalgia; Widespread pain; Pain disorder; Therapeutic warming; AVACEN treatment method