Web-based Education to Enhance Fibromyalgia Management

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is a therapeutic approach that uses specific techniques to produce behavioral and cognitive change. CBT is not a singular approach to all problems; rather it is a set of techniques that can be tailored for specific problems. The techniques falling under the rubric of CBT have in common a scientific foundation based in learning and cognitive principles. The techniques used to change behavior are based on principles of classical and operant conditioning (e.g. extinction, positive and negative reinforcement, shaping, prompts), and observational learning. The techniques used to produce cognitive change are based largely on the development of problem solving skills and principles of attributional change (Craighead, Craighead, Kazdin, & Mahoney, 1994).

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective in the management of symptoms for a wide range of chronic medical illnesses (Compas, Haaga, Keefe, Leitenberg, & Williams, 1998; Emmelkamp & van Oppen, 1993; Gil et al., 1996)(1994; Emmelkamp et al., 1993; Turner & Romano, 1990; Gil et al., 1996; Keefe, 1996) including Fibromyalgia (Bradley, 1989; Nielson, Walker, & McCain, 1992; White & Nielson, 1995; Goldenberg, Kaplan, & Nadeau, 1994; Nielson et al., 1992; White et al., 1995; Goldenberg et al., 1994) and related conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome (Sharpe et al., 1996; Deale, Chalder, Marks, & Wessely, 1997; Deale, Chalder, Marks, & Wessely, 1997). The rationale for using CBT with FMS stems from the assumption that pain and suffering is the result of a complex integration of pathophysiology, cognition, affect, and behavior (Keefe, 1996). Modification of any one of these four factors can positively or negatively impact the course of the persistent medical condition.

When applied to patients having fibromyalgia, CBT has been shown to be associated with both short-term (3 weeks) and long-term (30 months) improvements in pain, distress, and perceived control over pain (Nielson et al., 1992; White et al., 1995; White et al., 1995). Several other investigations of CBT have demonstrated improvements in depression, pain behaviors, and tenderness (Nicassio et al., 1997), as well as knowledge of fibromyalgia and coping with pain (Vlaeyen et al., 1996). While the latter two studies did not demonstrate a superiority of CBT over educational approaches, a meta-analytic review concluded that psychological interventions for fibromyalgia in general produced effect sizes that exceeded those of physical therapy or pharmacological interventions for outcomes such as symptoms, mental health, and physical functioning (Rossy et al., 1999). The latter outcome, a sustained improvement in physical functioning, was the most difficult outcome to achieve for patients with fibromyalgia using any form of intervention. One recent study however demonstrated that 1-year sustained improvements in physical functional status were three times more likely in patients that attended a brief course of CBT than if they received only symptom-based pharmacological care (Williams, 2002).

New Advances in CBT Delivery Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of combining pharmacological interventions with CBT, integration of CBT into mainstream clinical practice for FMS has been slow. Barriers have not been due to lack of demonstrated efficacy, but rather to economic and administrative issues such as the lack of CPT codes for applying a psychological intervention for a physical illness, difficulties administering a time-intensive psychological intervention to populations that must travel long distances each week to obtain the intervention, and the lack of sufficient numbers of trained professionals to deliver the intervention on a large scale (Muehrer, 2000).

A current technology, Internet websites, has been implemented in an effort to overcome some of the barriers that have prevented the delivery of clinical services to FMS populations.

Healthcare Websites E-learning, the use of a website for education without the use of a live instructor, has become a popular method for educating the lay-public, for offering classes for credit and for continuing education online, and for training employees new job skills. Numerous websites exist that purport to improve health. Some of these sites simply provide information about illness, others provide interactive preprogrammed advice, and some send tailored health messages to patients.

The current study will seek to evaluate the effectiveness of using traditional standard care with standard care plus Internet web-based educational programming. This will be one of the largest randomized controlled trials to use web-based learning and should help to identify the feasibility of using this modality to augment standard care for the FMS community.

SUBJECTS WILL NEED TO COME TO SIOUX FALLS FOR THE STUDY VISITS.

The study sample will be drawn from a population of individuals diagnosed with fibromyalgia in a five state region consisting of North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

Subjects will be recruited into the study by practicing physicians either at the main hospital in Sioux Falls or in any of 15 affiliated rural clinic study sites. In order to be included in the study, potential subjects must meet the study inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Inclusion criteria

• Ability to travel to Sioux Falls, SD for study visits.
• All subjects must fulfill the diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia as established by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) in 1990 (Wolfe et al., 1990)
• Be 18 years of age
• All subjects must have been in standard medical care with a physician for at least 3 months.
• Subjects must have a home computer or access to a computer with the following features:

• An Internet browser that is Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher.
• Printer
• Speakers or headphones
• Ability to use e-mail and access to the Internet
• Subjects must be able to perform the following screening test designed to assess computer ability:

• Go to a webpage Log in to a website
• Click on an icon
• Click on a radio button to answer a multiple choice question
• Fill a name into a text box
• Click on a submit button
• Print a document

Exclusion criteria

Subjects will be excluded from participation if they have any of the following:

• A severe physical impairment that precludes receiving/using the website or using the CBT skills contained on the website (e.g. complete blindness)
• Co-morbid medical illnesses capable of causing a worsening of physical functional status independent of fibromyalgia (e.g. morbid obesity, autoimmune diseases,) cardiopulmonary disorders (e.g. angina, congestive heart failure, COPD, chronic asthma), uncontrolled endocrine or allergic disorders (e.g. thyroid dysfunction, Type I diabetes), and malignancy within 2 years.
• Any present psychiatric disorder involving a history of psychosis (e.g. schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, delusional disorder etc.), current suicide risk or attempt within 2 years of the study, or substance abuse within 2 years. Note: Subjects with mood disorders will not be excluded.
• Prior face to face CBT for pain management.
• Receiving or applying for or considering seeking disability payments.