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VirtualPain. Preliminary findings from a group-based digital therapeutics intervention for fibromyalgia
Ferran Vilalta-Abella1, Bruno Porras-Garcia2,3, Alexandra Ghiţă4
1Unit of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Hospital of Sant Joan Despí Moisès Broggi, Sant Joan Despí, Spain.
Introduction:
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder characterized by chronic pain, with significant medical, psychological, and socio-economic implications. Although there is limited evidence, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has shown to be effective in improving FM symptoms. An alternative to enhance CBT effectiveness is to incorporate digital therapeutics (DTx).
Aim:
We conducted a pilot study to investigate whether the addition of a DTx intervention (VirtualPain) to cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT) can reduce pain perception and associated symptoms in patients with FM.
Method:
Ten patients with FM were initially recruited from a public hospital in Barcelona. The treatment consisted of 6 weeks of VirtualPain group sessions and 16 weeks of CBGT. Measures of catastrophizing, self-efficacy, and coping were recorded before, during, and after the protocol. In the DTx sessions, pain intensity was recorded before and after each session.
Results:
The program (DTx and CBGT) showed a significant improvement in pain-related self-efficacy and relaxation measures. Improvement in pain perception was observed only after the DTx intervention.
Conclusions:
This study provides preliminary results regarding the added value of DTx (VirtualPain) as part of a CBGT for FM. The use of the program has facilitated a significant reduction in pain perception in each of the VirtualPain sessions, which provides further evidence of how this technology can be beneficial for improving FM treatments.
