Effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy separately and combined with TDCS on Pain severity and quality of life in Fibromyalgia patients

The aim of this research was to compare the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) with and without Transcranial direct-current Stimulation(tDCS) on pain severity, quality of life, and their subcomponents in fibromyalgia patients. In regard to the purpose, this research was applicable and in regard to procedure, it was a semi-experimental pretest-posttest with two experimental and one Sham group. 36 people were selected by the available sampling method from Fibromyalgia patients in Tehran during 1399 using entrance criteria such as Fibromyalgia recognition by a Rheumatologist, age between 30-55 years old, and 6 months of pain duration and randomly classified into three MBCT, MBCT with tDCS and sham group. The members of these groups were asked to complete the 36 Item Short Form Questionnaire (SF-36) and Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) before and after the intervention. Multivariate Covariance analysis showed that in terms of pain severity variable components, both treatments were effective in comparison with the Sham group, Also the MBCT with tDCS was significantly more effective than MBCT. In terms of Quality of Life components, a significant difference between MBCT and Sham groups was seen just in Emotional well-being, Social functioning, pain, and general health. Also, the MBCT with tDCS method was significantly more effective than the MBCT group in Emotional well-being, pain, and general health (P<0.05). Based on the results of this paper, Adding Transcranial direct-current Stimulation treatment to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy has a significant effect on pain severity among Fibromyalgia patients. Also, this effect is significant on some quality of life components.