Effects of clinical Pilates exercises in individuals with fibromyalgia: A randomized controlled trial

This study aimed to investigate the effects of clinical Pilates exercises in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and to compare the effects of one-to-one and group-based exercise methods.

A total of 42 women (mean age, 50.90±7.78 years) with FM were included. The participants were randomly divided into 2 groups (one-to-one exercise, n=16; group-based exercise, n=26). Disease impact was evaluated with the FM Impact Questionnaire, functional status with the Health Assessment Questionnaire, anxiety with the Beck Anxiety Inventory, quality of life with short form-36, and biopsychosocial status with the Bilişsel Egzersiz Terapi Yaklaşımı-biopsychosocial questionnaire. All the evaluations were performed pre- and post-treatment. Clinical Pilates exercises were carried out 2 days a week for 6 weeks.

When the pre- and post-treatment data were compared, significant improvement was seen in all parameters in the group-based exercise group; in the one-to-one exercise group, improvement was noted in disease impact, quality of life, and biopsychosocial status. When post-treatment data were compared, only disease impact was significant for the one-to-one exercise group. Effect size results were found to be moderate and high for both methods.

For clinical Pilates exercise in FM, one-to-one method was suggested to have high disease impact and low quality of life, whereas group-based exercise method showed high anxiety.