Efficacy of Dialectical Behavior Group Therapy on Pain and Resilience in Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome

The aim of present study was to investigate the efficacy of dialectical behavioral therapy in pain resilience in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome. Evidence suggests this approach is successful in the treatment of psychosomatic abnormalities. The results have been promising. Fibromyalgia is a chronic musculoskeletal pain syndrome that is characterized by pain at a wide range, sensitive points, fatigue, and sleep disorders, and its etiology is unknown. Chronic pain and muscle tenderness and muscle connective points are characteristic. This disease is a connective tissue rheumatoid arthritis. The existence of a non-painful set of syndromes has led to the use of the term fibromyalgia syndrome. In the 10% to 12% of the population, there are skeletal muscle for which no structural or inflammatory causes can be found. Despite the chronicity and complexity of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), there are pharmacological and no pharmacological interventions available that have clinical benefit. Based on current evidence, a stepwise program emphasizing education, certain medications, exercise, cognitive therapy, or all 4 should be recommended. Current evidence suggests efficacy of low-dose tricyclic antidepressants, cardiovascular exercise, cognitive behavioral therapy, and patient education. A number of other commonly used FMS therapies, such as trigger point injections, have not been adequately evaluated. The study employed a quasi-experimental method with the pre-posttest and follow-up design and with a control group. The study population was patients with fibromyalgia syndrome in Tehran.  The participants were 40 patients with fibromyalgia syndrome randomly assigned to experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The research instrument was the short-form SF-MPQ-2 and Conner, & Davidson’s resilience questionnaire. Repeated measure of variance analysis showed the proposed method had a significant effect on pain sensory, pain affective, total of pain, pain evaluative, pain miscellaneous and resilience. The proposed method can be suggested as a viable treatment method.