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Review
. 2023 Jun 25;11(13):1845.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare11131845.

e-Health Interventions Targeting Pain-Related Psychological Variables in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review

Valeria Donisi  1 , Annalisa De Lucia  1 , Ilenia Pasini  1 , Marialuisa Gandolfi  2 , Vittorio Schweiger  3 , Lidia Del Piccolo  1 , Cinzia Perlini  1
Affiliations
Review

e-Health Interventions Targeting Pain-Related Psychological Variables in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review

Valeria Donisi et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

There is growing evidence to support the potential benefit of e-Health interventions targeting psychosocial outcomes and/or pain-related psychological variables for chronic pain conditions, including fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). This systematic review aims at providing an in-depth description of the available e-Health psychological and/or multicomponent interventions for patients with FMS. Searches were made in PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, and PsycINFO up to 15 May 2023, finally including twenty-six articles. The quality of the included articles was medium-high (average quality assessment score of 77.1%). 50% of studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (n = 13), and the majority of them focused exclusively on adult patients with FMS (n = 23) who were predominantly female. Four categories of e-Health modalities were identified: web-based (n = 19), mobile application (m-Health) (n = 3), virtual reality (VR) (n = 2), and video consulting (n = 2). Interventions were mainly based on the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach (n = 14) and mostly involved contact with a healthcare professional through different digital tools. Overall, a growing number of psychological and multicomponent interventions have been created and delivered using digital tools in the context of FMS, showing their potentiality for improving psychosocial outcomes and pain-related psychological variables. However, some digital tools resulted as underrepresented, and the literature on this topic appears highly heterogeneous precluding robust conclusions.

Keywords: cognitive behavioral therapy; e-Health; fibromyalgia; m-Health; pain-related psychological variable; psychological intervention.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Process of study selection (based on PRISMA flow diagram).
Figure 2
Figure 2
e-Health modalities used to deliver the interventions (n = number of studies).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of variables assessed in the included studies by each e-Health modality.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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