The effects of neural therapy and kinesio taping on pain, functional status, and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients: a prospective randomized double-blind study

Objective: The aim of this study; to investigate the effects of neural therapy and kinesio taping treatments on pain, functional status and quality of life in women with fibromyalgia. Methods: This prospective, randomized and double-blind study included 70 female patients with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia between the ages of 20-49. Patients were randomized into 2 groups. The neural therapy group (n=35) received neural therapy+sham kinesio taping, and the kinesio taping group (n=35) received kinesio taping+sham neural therapy. Both groups were treated once a week for a total of 6 weeks. Before the treatment, after the treatment, and at the 3rd month after the treatment, the patients were evaluated with pain with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Pain Assessment with Manual Algometer, Number of Tender Points, Central Sensitization Scale (CSI), Beck Depression Scale (BDI), Beck Anxiety Scale (BAI), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), and Short Form-36 (SF-36) scores. Results: The mean age of 65 patients who completed the study was 40,2±6,5 years. Both groups were homogeneous in terms of demographic parameters and clinical measurements at the initial evaluation. There was a significant improvement in the evaluation criteria after the treatment and at the 3rd month compared to the baseline in both groups. In the neural therapy group, compared to the kinesio taping group, significant improvements were found in pain assessment with VAS, FIQ and pain subunit scores of SF-36 in the post treatment and 3rd month controls. In the post-treatment evaluation, significant improvements were found in CSI scores in favor of the neural therapy group. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that neural therapy and kinesio taping applied in fibromyalgia disease improved pain, functionality and quality of life, and neural therapy was found to be significantly more beneficial in pain and functionality than kinesio taping. The effects of both treatments on depression and anxiety are unclear. Keywords: Fibromyalgia, neural therapy, kinesio taping