Online mindfulness as therapy for fibromyalgia patients

Abstract

IntroductionFibromyalgia is a chronic disease. This diagnosis has been controversial in scientific society. However, there is one fact: there are women who feel not only uncontrollable and non-specific body pain, but also psychological symptoms.ObjectiveTo compare the efficacy of online sessions versus in onsite sessions. To demonstrate that online mindfulness sessions could help to reduce pain in patients with a diagnosis of fibromialgya.MethodA website created to give education and advice to women with fibromyalgia related to the disease was used as a platform to offer online mindfulness sessions.Two hundred and thirty-four patients with fibromyalgia asked to participate in the online sessions, but only 13 were included in the study. Nineteen other women received onsite mindfulness sessions. Patients were evaluated before and after intervention. Two analyses were undertaken: intragroup and intergroup.ResultsNo differences were found between online mindfulness session and onsite mindfulness session. In both cases, an improvement in the questionnaire scores was demonstrated. Mindfulness as a kind of psychotherapy helped patients to control pain and symptoms of anxiety.DiscussionThe new ICTs offer a huge of possibilities in medicine and mental health. With respect to psychiatry, not only intervention, like psychotherapy, can be offered but also psychoeducation. However, there are factors such as age and educational level that make online intervention difficult.ConclusionIn the near future, most people will interact with technology and it would be easier to supply online interventions and psychoeducation e-patients already exist, so e-doctors and e-psychiatrists should be online soon.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Physical and Psychological Health Predict Adherence to an Online Mindfulness Program for College Students

“…Online administration of therapeutic programs are believed to provide greater access to users, cost less, and be more inviting to the millennial generation (Maples & Han, ; Muñoz et al, ). Online mindfulness approaches are a recent development, but preliminary findings demonstrated that they are effective in mitigating a host of clinical concerns, including anxiety, stress, depression, psychological distress, and the pain associated with fibromyalgia (Cavanagh et al, ; Garrido‐Torres et al, ; Kemper, ; Krusche et al, ). These findings show that online mindfulness programs hold considerable promise for clinical applications and have the potential of bypassing some of the limitations of face‐to‐face administrations, alleviating the stress placed on college counseling centers.…”

Exploring Cancer Patients’ Experiences of an Online Mindfulness-Based Program: A Qualitative Investigation

“…Traveling to in-person classes is a burden on those dealing with cancer (Kinner et al 2018 ; Smith et al 2005 ). When compared with an in-person mindfulness-based intervention, online MBPs are frequently determined to be similarly effective (Gardner-Nix et al 2008 ; Garrido-Torres et al 2016 ). Both cancer and pain populations report improvements in anxiety, depression, and pain intensity (Cillessen et al 2019 ; Dowd et al 2015 ; Messer et al 2019 ), where cancer patients report additional improvements in fear of cancer recurrence, sleep, and fatigue (Cillessen et al 2019 ) and chronic pain patients reporting decreases in total pain interference, pain catastrophizing, and increases in pain acceptance (Dowd et al 2015 ; Hearn and Finlay 2018 ).…”