Is Whole-Body Cryostimulation an Effective Add-On Treatment in Individuals with Fibromyalgia and Obesity? A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Pain severity, depression, and sleep disturbances are key targets for FM rehabilitation. Recent evidence suggests that whole-body cryostimulation (WBC) might be an effective add-on treatment in the management of FM. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an add-on WBC intervention to a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program on pain intensity, depressive symptoms, disease impact, sleep quality, and performance-based physical functioning in a sample of FM patients with obesity. We performed a randomized controlled trial with 43 patients with FM and obesity undergoing a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program with and without the addition of ten 2-min WBC sessions at -110 degrees C over two weeks. According to our results, the implementation of ten sessions of WBC over two weeks produced additional benefits. Indeed, both groups reported positive changes after the rehabilitation; however, the group that underwent WBC intervention had greater improvements in the severity of pain, depressive symptoms, disease impact, and quality of sleep. On the contrary, with respect to performance-based physical functioning, we found no significant between-group differences. Our findings suggest that WBC could be a promising add-on treatment to improve key aspects of FM, such as pain, depressive symptoms, disease impact and poor sleep quality.

Automated summary

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of adding WBC intervention to a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program for FM patients with obesity. The results showed that the group that underwent WBC intervention had greater improvements in pain severity, depressive symptoms, disease impact, and sleep quality. However, no significant differences were found in performance-based physical functioning between the two groups.