[Treatment of patients with neuromuscular disease in a warm climate]

Abstract

Background: Several patient groups request treatment in a warm climate, in spite of the fact that the effects of such treatment are undocumented.

Material and methods: 47 children and 40 adults with neuromuscular diseases were recruited, stratified according to sex, use or non-use of electric wheelchair, primary myopathy or hereditary neuropathy, and randomised into two adult and two children groups. The patients were treated in a rehabilitation centre, either on Lanzarote or in Norway. All patients were monitored with physical tests and questionnaires at the start of the study, at the end of the treatment period, after three months (all groups) and after six months (adults only).

Results: No significant differences in effect between the groups were found. In the warm climate, the adult patient group showed a statistically significant improvement regarding pain, quality of life, depression, and results of physical tests at the end of treatment. After three months, the improvement in physical tests was still present. Among adult patients treated in Norway, improvement in physical tests was statistically significant after three months, but not at the end of the treatment period.

Interpretation: This study did not show a statistically significant difference between patients with various neuromuscular diseases treated in a warm climate compared to similar patients treated in Norway.