Research Critique - Fibromyalgia

Group Counseling Proposal

Disable Adult Population

With a pecification in females with Fibromyalgia

Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine; Oct2008, Vol. 14 Issue 8, Does six weeks of whole-body vibration exercise improve pain and fatigue in women with fibromyalgia, p975-981, 7p, 2 charts, 1 diagram, 2 graphs.

The article I chose to critique is one that is extremely personal to me. I have suffered with fibromyalgia, a chronic, episodic pain disorder since January, 1995 and thought this area of research to be most intriguing and appropriate. Fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome is considered a chronic rheumatic condition of unknown etiology characterized by widespread noninflammatory musculoskeletal pain with tenderness on palpation in a minimum of 11 of the 18 tender points for at least three months. The objective of the study was to investigate how effective a six week traditional exercise program with supplementary whole-body vibration (WBV) would be in improving the health status, physical functioning, and main systems of FM in women (Alentorn , Geli et al, 975). Hence, in considering the combined treatment, it is essential to understand the components of the combined program. The traditional exercise program consisted of 15 minutes of a warm-up, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, 25 minutes of stretching exercise, and 20 minutes of relaxation, while WBV is a mode of exercise that has recently been utilized to improve muscle strength, bone density and balance in healthy adults and aging populations (Alentorn , Geli et al, 975). Since this disorder is one that has no real cause or cure for that matter, this research critique may lend brief clarity to those who completely misunderstand how valid and debilitating FM is.

It was hypothesized that women with FM undergoing the traditional exercise with supplementary WBV would improve health status, physical functioning, and main symptoms of FM more so than women undergoing exercise only...