Trial reportQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2022
Active and sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improved quality of life in female patients with fibromyalgia.
Trial report in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical, neurophysiological and neurochemical effects of non-invasive electrical brain stimulation in fibromyalgia syndrome-a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Pooled it
- Brain stimulation targets for chronic pain: Insights from meta-analysis, functional connectivity and literature review.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2024Pooled it
- Are OMERACT recommendations followed in clinical trials on fibromyalgia? A systematic review of patient-reported outcomes and their measures.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2023Pooled it
- Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation for persistent pain state in rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized trial.Advances in rheumatology (London, England) · 2026Trial
- Short-Term Magnesium Therapy Alleviates Moderate Stress in Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial.Nutrients · 2022Trial
- Therapeutic approach to fibromyalgia: a consensus statement on pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment from the neuropathic pain special interest group of the Italian neurological society.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025Article
- Physical Modalities for the Treatment of Pain in Patients with Fibromyalgia.Mediterranean journal of rheumatology · 2025Review
- Article
- Effects of Different Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intensities over Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex on Brain Electrical Activity and Heart Rate Variability in Healthy and Fibromyalgia Women: A Randomized Crossover Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Non-Invasive Electric and Magnetic Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Effect of Single Session of Anodal M1 Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation-TDCS-On Cortical Hemodynamic Activity: A Pilot Study in Fibromyalgia.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Using High-Definition Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation to Treat Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Double-Blinded Controlled Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Pain reduction in fibromyalgia syndrome through pairing transcranial direct current stimulation and mindfulness meditation: A randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled pilot clinical trial.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeFibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome with a strong impact on quality of life (QoL). Treatment of this condition remains a challenge, due to the scarce evidence for the effectiveness of the therapeutic approaches available. Current attention is focused on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which has yielded promising results for pain treatment. Rather than focusing only on pain relief, in this study, we aimed to determine how active or sham tDCS (over three cortical targets -the primary motor cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the operculo-insular cortex-) affect QoL in patients with FM.
methodsUsing a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, we applied fifteen tDCS sessions of 20' to initial 130 participants (randomized to any of the four treatment groups). We evaluated the QoL (assessed by SF-36) and the symptoms' impact (assessed by FIQ-R) in baseline, after treatment and at 6 months follow-up.
resultsAll groups were comparable as regards age, medication pattern and severity of symptoms before the treatment. We found that QoL and symptoms' impact improved in all treatment groups (including the sham) and this improvement lasted for up to 6 months. However, we did not observe any group effect nor group*treatment interaction.
conclusionsAfter the intervention, we observed a non-specific effect that may be due to placebo, favoured by the expectations of tDCS efficacy and psychosocial variables inherent to the intervention (daily relationship with therapists and other patients in the clinic). Therefore, active tDCS is not superior to sham stimulation in improving QoL in FM.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.