IMPACT OF SIDDHA AND ENERGY-BASED THERAPY WITH PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON FIBROMYALGIA SYMPTOMS IN WOMEN: A RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Objective: This study aimed to analyze and compare the effectiveness of 6-week Siddha manual therapy (Varmam and Thokkanam) and energy sessions combined with exercise program to only exercises on pain, fatigue, sleep issues, health status, and quality of life in patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS). Methods: The design was randomized controlled trial and patients were randomly allocated into Exercise + Siddha [Manual + Energy sessions] (n=20) and Exercise alone (n=20) groups. The treatment was scheduled for 5 days a week for 6 weeks for both groups. Pain, fatigue, sleep issues were evaluated with Visual Analog Scales (VAS), health status with Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), and quality of life with Short Form-36 (SF-36) health questionnaire, all administered before and after intervention of treatment to both groups. The data was analyzed by Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Significant improvements were observed in both groups but patients given Siddha manual therapy with exercises showed better improvements in all variables as compared to patients intervened with exercise alone. In the Exercise + Siddha therapy group, all sub-items: pain (p<0.05), fatigue (p<0.05) and sleep problem (p<0.05) decreased, health status and quality of life improved (p<0.05). In exercise alone (p<0.05), pain, fatigue and sleep problem reduced but health status (the scores of FIQ-1 and FIQ-10), and quality of life (bodily pain, physical functioning, limitations due to physical health, emotional health, vitality, and general health perceptions parameters) showed lesser improvements. Conclusions: For this particular group of patients both Siddha (manual and energy sessions) therapy with exercises and exercises alone appeared to yield improvements in decreasing pain, fatigue and sleep issues along with increasing health status and quality of life in patients with FMS. However, Siddha incorporating both therapy and energy sessions with exercises was found to be more effective than exercises alone according to some sub items of FIQ in improving more health status and quality of life as compared to exercise alone however, further adequately powered trial is required to determine this with certainty.