Cyril Dupuis

4th Fascia Research Congress (Reston, VA, USA), 2015.
Actes publiés par Kiener, éditeurs : Wearing, Schleip, Chaitow, Findley

BACKGROUND: Pain is a complex phenomenom(1) which, when it becomes chronic, affects the whole person. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome, medically unexplained, which is characterised by widespread pain, linked with sleeping problems, chronic fatigue, and psychological problems(2). Fascia is a sensitive organ(3) wich has a nociception particularly linked with affective pain(4). Its implication in fibromyalgia has regularly been evoqued by researchers(5, 6, 7).

APPROACH: Here, I propose a double evaluation methodology which combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, to evaluate the effect of DBM Fasciatherapy, a manual therapy, on the pain of fibromyalgia patients. To measure the intensity of the overall pain, I used the Visual Analogic Scale (VAS), a commonly used method for pain measurement(8, 9). To evaluate the affective pain, I undertook a recorded guided research interview technique. 7 fibromyalgic patients were included in the research. They all assessed their pain on a VAS before, just after, one hour after, and one day after the treatment session.

RESULTS: A statistical analysis was performed on the VAS data. 3 patients reported significant reduction in pain level. The 4 participants who reported no change in the level of pain participated in a recorded guided research interview. The interviews were conducted with the aid of a grid focusing on 3 dimensions of pain and 5 issues linked with their pain (sleep, fatigue, behavior, cognition, social). The interviews were analysed with the help of a classification and interpretation method, which enabled an understanding of what people said about what they felt in their bodies. During the treatment session, the patients reported feeling muscle and mental relaxation, as well as a positive effect on the acute phases of pain. This was not shown in the VAS analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: After the final analysis, it appeared clearly that the qualitative approach greatly enriched the VAS data. This research points a new way for the exploration of the effects of a therapy targetted on fascia.

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