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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1408693
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Chronic Pain Treatment View all 10 articles

Chronic pain management in Fibromyalgia: the INTEGRO (INTEGRated Psychotherapeutic InterventiOn) protocol and its application on two case studies

Provisionally accepted
LIDIA DEL PICCOLO LIDIA DEL PICCOLO 1,2*Ilenia Pasini Ilenia Pasini 2Valeria Donisi Valeria Donisi 2Elisa Veneziani Elisa Veneziani 2Cinzia Perlini Cinzia Perlini 2Marta Nizzero Marta Nizzero 3Irma Lippolis Irma Lippolis 4Enrico Polati Enrico Polati 3Vittorio Schweiger Vittorio Schweiger 3
  • 1 University of Verona, Verona, Italy
  • 2 Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona, Verona, Veneto, Italy
  • 3 Department of Surgery, Dentistry, Paediatrics and Gynaecology, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Verona, Verona, Veneto, Italy
  • 4 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Veneto, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: To present an innovative integrated manualized psychotherapeutic intervention for fibromyalgia (FM) based on Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and somatic experiential techniques (namely the INTEGRated Psychotherapeutic InterventiOn, INTEGRO) and illustrate its application on two case studies. Methods: INTEGRO is composed of 12 individual sessions. The main objectives of the intervention are psychoeducation of chronic pain mechanisms, understanding the role of cognitive and emotional variables in one’s pain perception, teaching patient-tailored skills to increase pain awareness and its management, and learning how to live with pain experience. A 57-year-old female (patient A) and a 26-year-old female (patient B) with FM have been selected to describe their care pathways connected to the INTEGRO protocol. Data related to assessment variables and clinical processes have been reported, focusing on the mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance (i.e., avoidance or overcompensation) of chronic pain in FM, on the role of patients' naïf theories, and on the implications that all these aspects may have on the burden related to pain management. Results: Both patients showed a reduction in FM burden and an increase in self-efficacy in pain management: patient A reported an improvement in emotional regulation ability; patient B showed a decrease in pain interference in work activities and on emotional dimension. Conclusion: Examining each phase of the clinical protocol through the lens of its clinical application, the paper provides insights into the relationship between crucial psychosocial mechanisms, pain perception, management in FM treatment, and how all these aspects have been dealt with during psychotherapeutic treatment.

    Keywords: Chronic Pain Management, Fibromyalgia, Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Acceptance and commitment therapy (act), Mind-body intervention, self-efficacy, Clinical protocol, health-related quality of life

    Received: 28 Mar 2024; Accepted: 13 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 DEL PICCOLO, Pasini, Donisi, Veneziani, Perlini, Nizzero, Lippolis, Polati and Schweiger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: LIDIA DEL PICCOLO, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

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