Multidisciplinary Treatment for Hypermobile Adolescents with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.

BACKGROUND

To determine whether adolescents with generalized hypermobility spectrum disorder/ hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (G-HSD/ hEDS) show changes in the level of disability, physical functioning, perceived harmfulness and pain intensity after completing multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment.

METHODS

Pre-test post-test design. Fourteen adolescents with G-HSD/hEDS participated. The multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment consisted of a combination of physical training and exposure . Physical training aims to improve aerobic capacity, muscle strength and propriocepsis for compensating hypermobility. Exposure aims to decrease disability and pain-related fear. Pre- and post-treatment assessments were conducted to assess the level of disability, physical functioning (motor performance, muscle strength and physical activity level), perceived harmfulness and pain intensity.

RESULTS

After completing multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment, the adolescents showed a significant and clinically relevant improvement (improvement of 67%, <0.01) in functional disability. Furthermore, significant improvements were found in motor performance ( < 0.01), muscle strength ( < 0.05), perceived harmfulness ( < 0.01) and pain intensity ( <0.01) after completing multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment.

CONCLUSION

Multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment leads to a significantly and clinically relevant improvement in the level of disability for adolescents with G-HSD/hEDS. Positive effects were also found in physical functioning, perceived harmfulness and pain intensity. Although the results of this multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment for adolescents with G-HSD/hEDS are promising, further study is needed to confirm these findings in a randomized design.