Effectiveness of muscle stretching exercises with and without laser therapy at tender points for patients with fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficiency of a treatment composed of muscle stretching exercises, associated or not to laser therapy at tender points, for patients with fibromyalgia (FM), in view of bettering their quality of life. METHODS Twenty FM patients were randomly assigned to two groups: one submitted to laser therapy and stretching (LSG, n=10), and the other only to stretching exercises (SG, n=10). The visual analog scale of pain (VAS) and dolorimetry at tender points were used to assess pain; life quality was evaluated by means of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) and the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). RESULTS After the treatment program, both in LSG and SG were detected pain reduction, higher pain threshold at tender points (all p<0.01), lower mean FIQ scores, and higher SF-36 mean scores (all p<0.05). No significant differences were found between both groups. CONCLUSION The stretching exercises program proposed is efficient to reduce pain and painful sensibility at tender points, thus enhancing patients' quality of life. Laser therapy has not shown advantages when added to muscle stretching exercises.