App helps manage fibromyalgia through acceptance and commitment therapy

A smartphone-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) app may help patients manage fibromyalgia (FM), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, held from Nov. 10 to 15 in San Diego.

Michael Gendreau, M.D., from Gendreau Consulting in Poway, California, and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of the smartphone-based, prescription digital app FM-ACT. The analysis included 275 individuals meeting 2016 FM diagnostic criteria who were randomly assigned to receive either 12 weeks of FM-ACT or a digital symptom tracker control (ST); all patients remained on any ongoing FM treatment(s).

The researchers found that at week 12, 70.6 percent of the FM-ACT participants reported an improvement on the Patient Global Impression of Change, which was significantly greater than that reported by ST participants (22.2 percent).

FM-ACT exposure was significantly associated with a greater post-treatment reduction on the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire total score versus the ST arm (effect size, 0.65). Additionally, FM-ACT was statistically superior to the control treatment for pain intensity and interference, PROMIS Fatigue and Sleep Disturbance, Beck Depression Inventory II, Psychological Inflexibility in Pain Scale, and committed action. There were no treatment-related adverse events reported.

“Validated digital ACT therapy provided by FM-ACT, combined with the low-risk safety profile of this device-based intervention, offers an important step forward in reaching and benefiting the broader FM population with a nondrug therapy,” the authors write.

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