DTMS Combined with a Pain-directed Psychotherapeutic Intervention in Fibromyalgia - A Randomized Double-blind Sham-controlled Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a highly prevalent condition, causing chronic pain and severe reduction in quality of life and productivity, as well as social isolation (Birtane et al. Clinical Rheumatology 2007; 26(5), pp. 679–684; Arnold et al. Psychosomatics. England 2010; 51(6), pp. 489–497; Lacasse, Bourgault and Choinière. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2016; 17(1), pp. 1–9). Despite significant morbidity and economic burden caused by FMS, current treatments are scarce (Busch et al. The Journal of rheumatology. Canada 2008; 35(6), pp. 1130–1144; Bernardy et al. Journal of Rheumatology 2010; 37(10), pp. 1991–2005; Jackson et al. American journal of hematology 2016; 91(5), pp. 476–80). OBJECTIVES: To examine whether stimulation of the dorsal Anterior-Cingulate-Cortex and the medial Prefrontal-Cortex (ACC-mPFC) activity by deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS) enhances a pain-directed psychotherapeutic intervention. METHODS: Nineteen FMS patients were randomized to either 20 sessions of dTMS or sham stimulation, each followed by a pain-directed psychotherapeutic intervention. Using H7 HAC-coil or sham stimulation, we targeted the ACC-mPFC; specific brain areas that have a central role in pain processing (Fomberstein, Qadri and Ramani. Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology 2013; 26(5), pp. 588–593; Tendler, A. et al. Expert Review of Medical Devices 2016; 13(10), pp. 987–1000). Clinical response to treatment was evaluated using the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), Visual Analogue Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (VAS-FIQ), Brief Pain Inventory questionnaire (BPI), and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). RESULTS: DTMS treatment was safe and well tolerated by FMS patients. A significant decrease in the sensory and affective pain dimensions was demonstrated specifically in the dTMS cohort, as measured by the MPQ using paired-sample t-tests with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons on three-time points (Significant group x time interaction [F(2, 34) = 3.79, p < .05, η(2 =) 0.183]. No significant changes were found in the cognitive functions, psychophysical measurements of pain, or depressive symptoms in both dTMS and sham groups and between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that a course of dTMS combined with a pain-directed psychotherapeutic intervention can alleviate pain symptoms in FMS patients. Beyond the clinical possibilities, future studies are needed to substantiate the innovative hypothesis that it is not the dTMS alone, but rather dTMS driven plasticity of pain-related networks, that enables the efficacy of pain-directed psychotherapeutic interventions. DISCLOSURE OF INTEREST: None Declared
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.005 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.011 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".