Efeito da estimulação transcraniana por corrente contínua na tolerância ao esforço físico de mulheres sedentárias com fibromialgia: um ensaio clínico randomizado

Abstract

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a multifactorial syndrome that requires multi-professional care in order to reduce the level of pain and providing better living conditions for people with this problem. It has been evidenced that the treatment of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a technique capable of generating an analgesic effect, enabling to reduce the pain level in this population, beside to produce improvements in the assessments of physical conditioning of healthy people. According to this, the present study proposed to investigate the cumulative effect of the five-day intervention of anodic tDCS applied on M1 in the tolerance to physical effort and the impact of FM in sedentary women with FM syndrome. Twenty-six women took part of this study, who were randomly allocated into two groups: 13 active tDCS (age = 49.62 ± 6.59 years) and 13 simulated tDCS (age = 47.46 ± 10.03 years). The participants were submitted to pre and post intervention evaluations and for five consecutive days of treatment by anodic tDCS (active or simulated). The variables measured were the revised fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQR), balance tests (BLT), flexibility test (FLT), sitting and standing test (SST), six-minute walk test (6MWT), maximum incremental test (ITmax) on cyclosimulator, evaluation of the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and the visual numerical pain scale (VNS) in the 6MWT. After the development of the present study, it was evidenced that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in all assessments of physical conditioning, in RPE and VNS in the 6MWT, and in the functional domain of FIQR. However, the global impact domain, symptom domain and the general FIQR score showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the time of the active tDCS group after the treatment period. Thus, it is concluded that anodic tDCS performed for five consecutive days was not able to promote an immediate effect on functional capacity, tolerance to maximum physical effort and also on RPE and pain intensity on the 6MWT. However, it can reduce the impact of fibromyalgia on sedentary women with the syndrome.