Journal of Sleep Disorders & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Treatment with Very Low Intensity Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Patients with Fibromyalgia: Effects on Sleep Quality

Jose María Gomez Arguelles*, Blanca Travesí Bugallo, Marcos Moreno-Zazo and Ceferino Maestu Unturbe

The relationship between poor sleep quality and fibromyalgia is bidirectional; both processes constantly feed into each other. A treatment that improves both processes could be very useful. This study investigates the effectiveness of applying a very lowfield transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment on patients with fibromyalgia, and to know what changes are produced in the quality of sleep of the patients, compared to two control groups. Methods: a total of 27 patients with fibromyalgia were recruited, all of them adult women. The treatment of magnetic stimulation was applied to them, 4 or 6 weekly sessions, and the results were compared against a group of 52 patients with fibromyalgia to whom no treatment was applied, along with another group of 52 women with the same bio demographic characteristics, but without any pathology. The results were compared in terms of pain improvement using clinical global impression scales, and in terms of sleep quality using the Pittsburgh scale. Results: an improvement in the parameters studied was obtained in 82% of the subjects to whom the treatment was applied, with a mean reduction in the total score of the sleep scale from 16 to 8 points. This improvement is close to the rates observed in healthy subjects. Conclusion: very low intensity transcranial magnetic stimulation in this group of patients with fibromyalgia produced a clinical improvement and an improvement in sleep quality, reaching levels similar to those of healthy subjects.

Published Date: 2021-11-22; Received Date: 2021-10-23