Molecular Response to Custom Manual Physiotherapy Treatment of Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)

Overview

Fibromyalgia (FM)and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are complex diseases often presenting overlapping symptomatology. Manual therapy (MT) protocols report benefits for pain treatment of FM, but the underlying mechanisms for patient improvement remain unknown. The main goal of this study is to assess the molecular changes associating to mechanical and additional MT triggers, possibly involved in patient symptom improvement.

Patients with Fibromyalgia as primary diagnosis assessed by the 1990 \& 2010 ACR (American College of Rheumatology) criteria, presenting or not comorbid CFS, according to the Canadian and International CFS criteria, age 40-75 and BMI\<35 (N=40), will be subjected to physiotherapy treatment consisting on 8 sessions of manual therapy (twice weekly) of 25 minutes including pressure maneuvers of about 4,5 N by a single operator (Collegiate Physiotherapist). Blood samples (10-20mls/participant) will be obtained before and after first treatment, and after fourth and last treatment to determine molecular blood changes associated to the physiotherapy protocol applied. PBMC (Peripheral Blood Molecular Cells) transcriptome before and after treatments (RNAseq) will be studied towards identifying treatment-associated differential expression, mechanomiR profiles included. Patient health status with treatment will be monitored by FIQ, MFI and SF-36 questionnaires, in addition to an anonymized satisfaction questionnaire to register potential undesired secondary effects.

Conditions