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The disease, which is characterized by chronic pain, has no cure but different treatments can relieve symptoms.
A multicenter study with the participation of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the University of Barcelona (UB) and the University of the Americas (UDLA) of Ecuador has shown that personal construct therapy is equally effective as cognitive-behavioral therapy in time to reduce depressive symptoms and improve the quality of life of patients with fibromyalgia. The two therapies reduced depression symptoms in approximately 60% of the participants. Fibromyalgia is a rheumatological disease of unknown origin that is characterized by chronic pain and often presents symptoms of depression. It mainly affects women and has no cure, but different treatments can relieve the symptoms.
Mari Aguilera, researcher of the inter-university group of the UOC and the UB GRECIL, professor at the UOC and main co-author of the study, together with the researcher at the University of the Amèriques Clara Paz, highlights that the results imply being able to open the range of effective therapies and gain flexibility to adapt to the particularities and needs of each patient.
Coordinated by the professor of the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB Guillem Feixas, the work included 106 women with fibromyalgia and depression who were treated in ten different places: two mental health centers and eight primary care centers. The association between fibromyalgia and depression is common in these patients and seems to go both ways: one increases the risk and worsens the characteristics of the other.
The volunteers followed weekly psychological therapy for about four months. Half received standard cognitive-behavioral therapy, which has already been shown to be moderately effective in these patients. The other half followed a treatment based on personal construct therapy, a different approach that focuses “on people's identity; how they see themselves, how they see what happens to them and how they see others," explains Joan Carles Medina, also author of the work, professor at the UOC and researcher at the UB.
Along the same lines, Aguilera indicates that standard cognitive-behavioral therapy is "more interested in how to modify behavior than in the why of it," while personal construct therapy focuses especially "on how you construct your world and What do you give meaning? "But it is not so much about facing them as about verifying that both can be useful from a different position," she highlights.
Thus, the researchers emphasize that having more proven resources allows us to adapt to patient preferences. «It helps us to better personalize and adapt treatments. We have more tools to listen, learn and propose strategies,” concludes Medina.
"Fibromyalgia does not have a specific known cause and there is no cure, but a psychological improvement has an impact on physical health," says Aguilera, who adds that this is especially important in a disease that "is still questioned by some doctors and in which less importance is often given due to the fact that it mainly affects women.
