Beykoz State Hospital, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Department, Turkey.
Bahçeşehir University, Health Sciences Institute, Turkey.
Biomed Res Int. 2020 Feb 28;2020:8656218. doi: 10.1155/2020/8656218. eCollection 2020.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of auricular vagus nerve stimulation, applied in conjunction with an exercise treatment program, on pain and life quality in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). To achieve the study objectives, 60 female patients between the ages 18 and 50, with diagnosed FMS according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010 diagnostic criteria, were randomly divided into 2 groups of 30. The first group was assigned 20 sessions of a home-based exercise program, while the second group was assigned 20 sessions of auricular vagus nerve stimulation and 20 sessions of a home-based exercise program. Patients were assessed before and after the treatments using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain, Beck Depression Scale for depression, Beck Anxiety Scale for anxiety, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) for functional evaluation, and Short Form-36 (SF-36) for life quality. In this randomized controlled trial, comparisons within the groups revealed that both groups had statistically significant improvements in pain, depression, anxiety, functionality, and life quality scores ( < 0.05), while comparisons across the groups revealed that the group experiencing the vagus nerve stimulation had no statistically significant differences between the baseline scores, except for those of SF-36's subparameters of physical function, social functionality, and pain. In fact, comparisons across the groups after the interventions revealed that the group experiencing the vagus nerve stimulation had better scores but not statistically significant. From analysis of this data, we observed that vagus nerve stimulation in FMS treatment did not give additional benefit together with exercise, except for three subparameters of SF-36. It was identified that further studies which separately investigate the effects of vagus nerve stimulation and exercise on FMS with longer follow-up periods and an increased number of patients are needed.
本研究旨在评估耳迷走神经刺激联合运动治疗方案对纤维肌痛综合征（FMS）患者疼痛和生活质量的影响。为实现研究目标，将 60 名年龄在 18 至 50 岁之间、符合美国风湿病学会（ACR）2010 年诊断标准的女性 FMS 患者随机分为两组，每组 30 名。第一组接受 20 次家庭运动方案，第二组接受 20 次耳迷走神经刺激和 20 次家庭运动方案。治疗前后采用视觉模拟评分（VAS）评估疼痛、贝克抑郁量表评估抑郁、贝克焦虑量表评估焦虑、纤维肌痛影响问卷（FIQ）评估功能、健康调查简表 36 项（SF-36）评估生活质量。在这项随机对照试验中，组内比较显示两组疼痛、抑郁、焦虑、功能和生活质量评分均有统计学意义的改善（<0.05），而组间比较显示，除 SF-36 的生理功能、社会功能和疼痛三个亚参数外，接受迷走神经刺激组的基线评分无统计学差异。实际上，干预后组间比较显示，接受迷走神经刺激组的评分更好，但无统计学意义。从数据分析中，我们观察到迷走神经刺激联合运动治疗 FMS 并没有带来额外的益处，除了 SF-36 的三个亚参数。需要进一步研究分别评估迷走神经刺激和运动对 FMS 的影响，需要更长的随访时间和更多的患者。
