A Brief Mindfulness Intervention for Pain Management in Fibromyalgia: A Single-arm Open-Label Study

In this open-label single-arm study, we tested the preliminary therapeutic effects of a four-week mindfullness-based intervention (MBI) tailored for fibromyalgia, including weekly online group meetings and daily mindfulness practices. Forty-six patients completed the intervention. The primary outcome was pain intensity scored on a numerical rating scale (NRS). Secondary outcomes included verbal fluency and self-reports of affective pain, quality of life, sleep quality, mood, emotion regulation, and psychological impairment. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to measure mindfulness-induced cortical excitability changes. Participants reported statistically reduced pain intensity post-training, with only 15.3% of the patients demonstrating clinically meaningful pain relief. A moderate improvement in quality of life, with only 45.6% clinical responders, were noted. Small-to-medium improvements in affective pain level, mindfulness level, and resilience as well as increase in long-interval intracortical inhibition—a measure of GABA B ergic inhibition—were observed. The study introduces a novel MBI tailored for fibromyalgia. Nonetheless, given the current study design and the lack of clinical significance of the findings despite statistical significance, the results are insufficient to draw firm conclusions regarding its potential therapeutic efficacy. Future sham-controlled randomized clinical trials are necessary to validate and expand upon these results.