JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Fibromyalgia (FM) causes widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive abnormalities. Cervical pain is a com-mon and debilitating symptom. This study evaluates the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) as a treatment for chronic cervical pain experienced by FM patients.

Objective:

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of VR as a therapeutic option for neck pain in pa-tients with FM. We hypothesized that VR could decrease cervical pain and kinesiophobia and increase ROM, facilitating improvements in quality of life and adherence to treatment.

Methods:

A single-blind randomized clinical trial was conducted. Fifty-four women were randomly assigned to three groups: G1 (VR + cervical mobility exercises), G2 (cervical mobility exercises), and CG (control group). Therapy was administered twice a week for 4 weeks. Variables such as disease impact, quality of life, kine-siophobia, pain, range of motion, fatigue, and treatment adherence were measured.

Results:

The mean age of the participants was 54.26 (7.7), and they were overweight, with a mean BMI of 28.7 (7.8). The mean VAS value was 6.72 (1.8). The baseline values for age, BMI, VAS, algometric measures, and func-tional capacity (measured using the Timed Up and Go test, cervical rotation, and lateral displacement) were similar across the three groups. After therapy, the control group showed no significant improvements, while both therapy groups did show improvements. Significant differences were found between G1 and G2/G3 but not between G2 and G3. These differences remained at the one-month follow-up.

Conclusions:

Our study suggests that cervical mobility exercises alone may not significantly improve pain relief and functional capacity among FM patients compared to a placebo. However, combining VR with these exer-cises leads to significant improvements. VR may enhance the effects of neck physical therapy in the context of FM. Clinical Trial: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05933941.