The effectiveness of exercise and physical activity programs on fatigue and sleep in people with arthritis - A systematic review with meta-analysis.

This systematic review aimed to systematically investigate the literature on the effectiveness of exercise and physical activity programs on fatigue and sleep in people with arthritis. For that, seven databases were searched for relevant randomized controlled trials. After the searches, 36 studies investigating 2281 participants were included. Risk of bias assessments were done by two independent reviewers using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool 2. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework was used to judge the certainty of evidence. The evidence on benefits of exercise and physical activity programs on fatigue and sleep parameters in people with osteoarthritis and psoriatic arthritis was either lacking or inconclusive. There was very low to low certainty evidence for a slight benefit of exercise and physical activity programs on fatigue at short-term in people with ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis. However, the evidence was very uncertain for the medium- and long-term as well as for any sleep parameters. The results indicate that exercise and physical activity programs may offer some benefits on fatigue for people with arthritis in the short-term, although the best type of exercise remains uncertain. The available evidence on improvements in sleep was insufficient to draw strong conclusions.

Do sociodemographic features, pain sensitivity or pain catastrophizing relate to clinic-based adherence to physiotherapy in people suffering from chronic spinal pain? Secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial.

PURPOSE: Examining whether socio-demographic variables, pain or functionality are related to the degree of clinic-based therapy adherence in patients suffering from nonspecific chronic spinal pain (nCSP). DESIGN: Secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial. SETTING: University hospital of Ghent and Brussels. METHODS: Dutch speakers, 18-65 years old, experiencing nCSP for at least 3 months. 120 participants were randomly allocated to two interventional groups, of which 94 completed all therapy sessions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Degree of clinic-based adherence, defined as the amount of completed therapy sessions. RESULTS: Demographic data (sex, age or education) were not significantly associated with adherence in the total sample or the neuroscience group. For the traditional physiotherapy group, educational level was associated with attendance of at least 50% of the therapy sessions. Regarding pain-, belief- and function-related measures, only the association between change in kinesiophobia and adherence was significant for the traditional physiotherapy group. CONCLUSIONS: Factors related to therapy adherence in the total group or the neuroscience group could not be found. Educational level and change in kinesiophobia were however related to therapy adherence in the traditional physiotherapy group.

Brain changes associated with cognitive and emotional factors in chronic pain: A systematic review.

An emerging technique in chronic pain research is MRI, which has led to the understanding that chronic pain patients display brain structure and function alterations. Many of these altered brain regions and networks are not just involved in pain processing, but also in other sensory and particularly cognitive tasks. Therefore, the next step is to investigate the relation between brain alterations and pain related cognitive and emotional factors. This review aims at providing an overview of the existing literature on this subject. Pubmed, Web of Science and Embase were searched for original research reports. Twenty eight eligible papers were included, with information on the association of brain alterations with pain catastrophizing, fear-avoidance, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Methodological quality of eligible papers was checked by two independent researchers. Evidence on the direction of these associations is inconclusive. Pain catastrophizing is related to brain areas involved in pain processing, attention to pain, emotion and motor activity, and to reduced top-down pain inhibition. In contrast to pain catastrophizing, evidence on anxiety and depressive symptoms shows no clear association with brain characteristics. However, all included cognitive or emotional factors showed significant associations with resting state fMRI data, providing that even at rest the brain reserves a certain activity for these pain-related factors. Brain changes associated with illness perceptions, pain attention, attitudes and beliefs seem to receive less attention in literature. SIGNIFICANCE: This review shows that maladaptive cognitive and emotional factors are associated with several brain regions involved in chronic pain. Targeting these factors in these patients might normalize specific brain alterations.