[Comparison between aquatic-biodanza and stretching for improving quality of life and pain in patients with fibromyalgia]. / Comparación entre biodanza en medio acuático y stretching en la mejora de la calidad de vida y dolor en los pacientes con fibromialgia.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of improvement, as regards pain, impact on fibromyalgia and depression, achieved by patients with fibromyalgia by comparing aquatic biodanza and stretching exercises. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial with two intervention groups. LOCATION: Five health centres (Almeria). PATIENTS: A total of 82 fibromyalgia patients between 18 and 65 years old, diagnosed by American College of Rheumatology criteria, were included, with 12 patients declining to take part in the study. The 70 remaining patients were randomly assigned to two groups of 35 patients each: aquatic biodanza and stretching exercises. Those who did not attend in at least 14 sessions or changed their treatment during the studio were excluded. The final sample consisted of 19 patients in aquatic biodanza group and 20 in stretching group. The limitations of the study included, the open evaluation design and a sample size reduced by defaults. MAIN MEASURES: The outcome measures were sociodemographic data, quality of life (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire), pain (McGill-Melzack questionnaire; and Visual Analogue Scale), pressure algometry (Wagner FPI10 algometer) and depression (Beck Inventory). These were carried out before and after a 12-week therapy. RESULTS: The mean age of the sample was 55.41 years. The mean period from diagnosis was 13.44 years. The sample consisted mainly of housewives. There were significant differences (P<.05) between groups, in pain (P<.01), fibromyalgia impact (P<.01), and depression (P<.04) after the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The biodanza aquatic exercises improve pain and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients.

[Effectiveness of aquatic biodance on sleep quality, anxiety and other symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia]. / Efectividad de la biodanza acuática sobre la calidad del sueño, la ansiedad y otros síntomas en pacientes con fibromialgia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effects of an aquatic biodance based therapy on sleep quality, anxiety, depression, pain and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Randomized controlled trial with 2 groups. Fifty-nine patients were assigned to 2 groups: experimental group (aquatic biodance) and control group (stretching). The outcome measures were quality of sleep (Pittsburgh questionnaire), anxiety (State Anxiety Inventory), depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), pain (visual analogue scale, pressure algometry and McGill) and quality of life (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire) before and after a 12-week therapy. RESULTS: After treatment, we observed significant differences in the experimental group (P<.05) on sleep quality (49.7%), anxiety (14.1%), impact of fibromyalgia (18.3%), pain (27.9%), McGill (23.7%) and tender points (34.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Aquatic biodance contributed to improvements in sleep quality, anxiety, pain and other fibromyalgia symptoms.