Increase your income by attracting thousands of followers, fans, and friends to your Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace by using free content from www.SocialOpine.com.



The Effect of Guided Imagery and Amitriptyline on Daily Fibromyalgia Pain

They monitored them daily for pain in a randomized, controlled clinical trial. One group (n=17) received relaxation training and "pleasant" guided imagery designed to distract them from their pain. Another group (n=21) received relaxation training and attention imagery that focused on the "active workings of the internal pain control systems". The control group received treatment as usual (n=17). Patients were also randomly assigned to 50-mg amitriptyline/day or placebo. The slopes of diary pain ratings over a 4-week period were used as the outcome measures. The team found significant differences of the pain-slopes between the three psychological conditions (P=0.0001). The pleasant imagery declined significantly (P<0.005) when compared with the control group (P>0.05). The attention imagery group's slope did not. Neither was there a difference between the amitriptyline and placebo slopes (main effects, P=0.98). The study concludes that pleasant imagery is an effective intervention in reducing fibromyalgic pain during the 28-day study period. Amitriptyline had no significant advantage over placebo during the study period.

>

Posted: 12/22/2006



This article provided by The International Hypnosis Research Institute.

Enter your email address to subscribe to the IHRI Newsletter.