Safety and Efficacy of Fluoxetine in Juvenile Fibromyalgia

University of Cincinnati6 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this research is to conduct an open, pilot trial to assess the efficacy and safety of fluoxetine in the treatment of Juvenile Primary Fibromyalgia Syndrome (JPFS).

Fibromyalgia is a common condition that is often challenging to treat. It is defined by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) as widespread pain of at least 3 months duration in combination with tenderness at 11 or more of 18 specific tender point sites on the body. The prevalence of JPFS in children and adolescents in the general population of the United States is unknown. Studies from Israel, Mexico, and Italy have estimated that the prevalence rate of JPFS in school children ranges from 1.24% to 6.20%, with girls making up the majority of cases. Information from a national registry in the United States indicates that JPFS accounts for about 7.7% of new patient diagnoses in a pediatric rheumatology setting. The mean age of onset of pediatric JPFS is 12 years. As in adults, JPFS has been diagnosed in children and adolescents using the ACR criteria. JPFS often leads to substantial morbidity and disability. For example, adolescents with JPFS reported significantly greater functional disability and greater number of school absences than those with other rheumatic diseases such as juvenile RA or lupus. The presence of high levels of pain and disability at this critical developmental stage place adolescents with JPFS at greater risk for long term social and occupational difficulties. Early diagnosis and effective intervention are therefore of critical importance.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Juvenile Primary Fibromyalgia Syndrome (JPFS)Fibromyalgia

Interventions

FluoxetineDRUG

Fluoxetine po 10-60 mg/day for 12 weeks. Fluoxetine was started at 10 mg once daily. The dose was flexibly dosed based on pain efficacy and tolerability to a final dose between 10 and 60 mg once daily

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 13 YearsMax age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Female or male outpatients 13 to 18 years of age. * Fulfillment of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for primary fibromyalgia. * Ability to understand and cooperate with study procedures. * Provision of parental written informed consent and verbal and written assent from the adolescent for participation in the study. Exclusion Criteria: * Unwillingness or inability on the part of the parent to provide written informed consent or for the adolescent to provide verbal and written assent. * Lifetime history of psychosis, hypomania or mania. * Diagnosis of alcohol or substance abuse or dependence within 6 months prior to screening visit. * Patients judged to be at serious suicide or homicide risk. * Girls who are pregnant or lactating. Girls of childbearing potential who are not using a medically accepted method of contraception (including barrier or hormonal methods). * Clinically unstable medical or psychiatric conditions that could interfere with the absorption, metabolism, excretion, or safety of fluoxetine or interfere with the assessment of disease severity. * Inability to exclude traumatic injury, regional or structural rheumatic disease, or infectious arthropathy as the etiology of their relevant fibromyalgia symptoms and that would interfere with interpretation of outcome measures (e.g., osteoarthritis, bursitis, tendonitis). * History of an autoimmune disease or inflammatory arthritis, such as systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA). * Treatment with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, tricyclic, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant, or lithium within 2 weeks prior to beginning study medication. * Treatment with analgesic medication (with the exception of acetaminophen and over-the-counter NSAIDs) within one week prior to beginning study medication. * Treatment with any other excluded medication that cannot be discontinued at the screening visit. * Previous treatment with fluoxetine. * Treatment with any investigational medications within 30 days prior to screening.

Locations (1)

Women's Health Research Program

Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Average Pain Severity Score

The primary outcome measure was average pain severity on the Pediatric Pain Questionnaire's 100-mm visual analog scale. (0=no pain and 100 = severe pain )

Time frame: Daily on average in the past week.

Secondary Outcomes

The Clinical Global Impression of Severity

Measures severity of illness at the time of the assessment on a scale of 1 (normal, not at all ill) to 7 (among the most extremely ill).

Time frame: at the time of the assessment

The Patient Global Impression of Improvement

Measures the patient's impression of improvement since baseline on a scale of 1 (very much better) to 7 (very much worse).

Time frame: since baseline, at the time of the assessment

The Functional Disability Inventory-child Version

A self-report inventory that assesses patients' ability to perform a variety of daily physical, social, and recreational activities. The scale ranges from 0 (no disability) to 60 (severe disability).

Time frame: Over the "last few days."

The Functional Disability Inventory-parent Version

Consists of the same 15 items as the child version but allows the parent to provide their perception of the child's difficulty in performing daily physical, social, and recreational activities. The score ranges from 0 (no disability) to 60 (severe disability).

Time frame: Over the "last few days."

Children's Depression Inventory

A 27-item, self-report measure of depressive symptoms with a score range of 0 (no depressive symptoms) to 54 (severe depressive symptoms.

Time frame: Over the past 2 weeks.

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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