Early Experience with a Brief, Multimodal, Multidisciplinary Treatment Program for Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a complex heterogeneous disorder for which a multidisciplinary individualized approach is currently advocated. We executed a 1-week multidisciplinary fibromyalgia clinical program with seven patients, based on our experience with our existing 1.5-day multidisciplinary fibromyalgia program that has demonstrated both short- and long-term benefits. The current expanded program was not designed as a clinical study, but rather as a clinical feasibility assessment, and it was multidisciplinary in nature, with cognitive behavioral therapy, activity pacing, and graded exercise therapy as major components. We assessed changes in individual patients at 1 week and 3 months after the program with the use of validated self-report measures of pain, fatigue, and self-efficacy. All patients indicated at least small improvements in pain and physical symptoms at both 1 week and 3 months, and all but one patient showed improvement in self-efficacy at 1 week and 3 months. Similar trends were observed for fatigue. Based on our early clinical experience, we conclude that the 1-week multidisciplinary fibromyalgia program is logistically feasible and has potential for clinical efficacy. Further research is needed and is planned to test the clinical efficacy of this program and compare it with other interventions.