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An internet-based positive affect skills intervention improved emotional well-being, pain, and fatigue in older adults with fibromyalgia symptoms.

Fibromyalgia is one of the most prevalent and challenging chronic pain conditions to treat. It involves widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties, affecting a diverse age group.

Promising results from positive affect interventions have shown improvement in emotional well-being and pain management in patients living with chronic pain conditions. However, research is lacking on the efficacy of internet-delivered positive affect interventions for patients with fibromyalgia.

To address this gap, Anthony Ong, PhD, and colleagues examined the effects of an internet-delivered positive affect skills intervention—Lessons in Affect Regulation to Keep Stress and Pain Under Control (LARKSPUR)—in enhancing emotional and functional well-being among adults with fibromyalgia syndrome. They published their findings in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

The study included 95 patients aged 50 years and older randomly assigned to the LARKSPUR intervention arm (n=49) or emotion reporting/attention control arm (n=46). At the post-intervention and 1-month follow-up time points, the patients completed seven consecutive, end-of-day, web-based reports capturing positive events, pain, fatigue, positive affect, and negative affect.

The findings provided evidence that LARKSPUR can improve responsivity to daily positive events. Dr. Ong and colleagues explained that the intervention also led to greater decreases in negative affect and increases in positive affect following positive experiences.

At the post-intervention timepoint, patients in the LARKSPUR arm showed greater reductions in negative affect (bL–bC, –0.06; 95% highest posterior density interval [HPD], –0.10 to –0.02; Pd>0.99) and increases in positive affect (bL–bC, 0.10; 95% HPD, 0.02-0.19; Pd=0.99) in response to daily positive events compared with the control arm. The researchers noted that these differential gains in affective responsivity were not maintained at 1-month follow-up, with nonsignificant between-group differences in both positive affect (bL–bC, 0.01; 95% HPD, –0.08 to 0.09; Pd=0.56) and negative affect (bL–bC, –0.00; 95% HPD, –0.04 to 0.04; Pd=0.51) responsivity.

LARKSPUR also led to greater reductions in pain (bL–bC, –0.20; 95% HPD, –0.36 to –0.04; Pd=0.99) and fatigue (bL–bC, –0.24; 95% HPD, –0.41 to –0.06; Pd>0.99) following positive experiences at the post-intervention and 1-month follow-up.

“This provides initial support for the efficacy of technology-based platforms…to boost well-being in this population by targeting sensitivity to daily [positive events],” the investigators concluded.

They noted additional research is warranted to replicate the study results in a “larger sample and address optimizing technology to enhance LARKSPUR’s scalability and efficacy for diverse aging adults with fibromyalgia.”