Interdisciplinary Treatment of Patients with Fibromyalgia: Improvement of Their Health‐Related Quality of Life

Objective To assess whether an interdisciplinary intervention is more effective than usual care for improving the health‐related quality of life ( HRQ o L ) among patients with fibromyalgia ( FM ), and to identify variables that were predictors of improvement in HRQ o L . Methods In a randomized controlled clinical trial carried out on an outpatient basis in a hospital pain management unit, 153 patients with FM were randomly allocated to an experimental group ( EG ) or a control group ( CG ). Participants completed the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire ( FIQ ) at baseline and 6 months after the intervention. The EG received an interdisciplinary treatment (12 sessions for 6 weeks) which consisted of coordinated psychological, medical, educational, and physiotherapeutic interventions while the CG received standard‐of‐care pharmacologic treatment. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA , C hi square and F isher tests and generalized linear models were used for data analysis. Results Six months after the intervention, statistically significant improvements in HRQ o L were observed in physical functioning ( P  = 0.01), pain ( P  = 0.03) and total FIQ score ( P  = 0.04) in the EG compared to the CG . The number of physical illnesses was identified as a predictor for improvement. Conclusions This interdisciplinary intervention has shown effectiveness in improving the HRQ o L of this sample of patients with FM . The number of physical illnesses was identified as a predictor of that improvement.