ReviewBrain sciences2026
Exercise as Medicine: Quantifying the Effects of Physical Activity on Fibromyalgia Pain-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Brain sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe pain experienced by people with fibromyalgia (FM) is thought to be the result of altered nociceptive processing, impaired descending inhibition and reduced tolerance to physical load. However, the relationship between the amount of exercise and pain reduction remains unclear.
methodsThis study synthesized randomized controlled trials of exercise interventions for FM to quantify the combined analgesic effects of different types of exercise. A secondary aim was to standardize exposure using metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-based metrics and examine the association between cumulative intervention dose (MET·h) and analgesic response (Hedges' g) across intervention arms. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a search was conducted in PubMed for randomized controlled trials published up to 31 December 2025. After screening and a full-text assessment, 15 trials were included. The protocols were converted into MET-defined intensity and weekly MET·min exposure, and the cumulative dose was calculated as the total MET·h accrued over the intervention period. Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled effects within modality subgroups.
resultsAcross modalities, exercise was associated with reductions in pain, with effects typically falling within the small-to-moderate range. Larger improvements were observed in structured or supervised programs. The dose-response scatter plot showed wide variability across the dose range, with overlapping confidence intervals. An exploratory fourth-degree polynomial fit explained limited variance (R
conclusionsBased on these findings, a pain-responsive algorithm combining weekly Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), ΔVAS and Talk Test thresholds was implemented as a preliminary online calculator to support the prescription of exercise tailored to symptoms.
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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.