Trial Report Psychological effects of recumbent isometric yoga and their associations with fatigue and functional recovery in myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic

[forestglip]

Psychological effects of recumbent isometric yoga and their associations with fatigue and functional recovery in myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome

Dhakal, Amrit; Acharya, Sujata; Oka, Takakazu

Background
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling illness with no established treatment. Our previous randomized controlled trial demonstrated that recumbent isometric yoga practiced for 12 weeks, in addition to usual care, significantly improved fatigue severity and functional status compared with usual care alone.

However, the effects of recumbent isometric yoga on psychological measures remain unclear. Therefore, the present analysis examined (1) whether recumbent isometric yoga influences psychological measures (depression, anxiety, alexisomia, and alexithymia), and (2) whether changes in these measures are associated with improvements in fatigue and functional status.

Methods
Patients with ME/CFS (n = 16) completed a 12-week recumbent isometric yoga program. Fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Scale [FS]), functional status (Performance Status scale [PS]), depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression subscale [HADS-D]), anxiety (HADS anxiety subscale [HADS-A]), alexisomia (Shitsu-Taikan-Sho Scale [STSS]), and alexithymia (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale [TAS-20]) were assessed before and after the intervention.

Pre- to postinterventional changes were analyzed using paired t tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Factors associated with fatigue reduction (ΔFS) were examined using multiple linear regression, and factors associated with postintervention PS were examined using ordinal logistic regression.

Results
FS and PS scores improved significantly postintervention. HADS-D and HADS-A scores decreased significantly, as did the STSS total score and the difficulty identifying bodily feelings (DIB) and overadaptation (OA) subscale scores. The reduction in TAS-20 score was not significant.

Improvement in depressive symptoms (ΔHADS-D) [β = 0.926, p = 0.020] was the only factor independently associated with fatigue reduction. Postintervention functional status was associated with baseline PS [OR = 9.70, 95% CI = 2.14-44.00, p = 0.03] and improvement in difficulty identifying bodily feelings (ΔSTSS-DIB) [ OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.56–0.98, p = 0.038].

Conclusions
Fatigue, functional status, and psychological measures improved after yoga in patients with ME/CFS. Improvements in depressive symptoms were associated with reduced fatigue, whereas baseline functional status and improvements in DIB were associated with postintervention functional status. These preliminary findings warrant confirmation in larger controlled studies.

Web | DOI | PDF | Research Square | Preprint

 

[Chandelier]

Diagnosis of ME/CFS​

Patients were diagnosed with ME/CFS if they met all the following sets of diagnostic criteria: the 1994 Fukuda case definition for chronic fatigue syndrome [3]; the 2003 Canadian clinical case definition for ME/CFS [2]; the 2011 International Consensus Criteria for ME [10]; the 2015 diagnostic criteria for systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID) [11]; and the 2017 Japanese clinical case definition for ME/CFS [12].

The editors missed something [ah, preprint]:

Eligible participants were adults who continued to experience difficulties in daily life and sought additional treatment options despite receiving at least 3 months of conventional treatment at the hospitalClick or tap here to enter text.. Conventional treatment included self-management support, guidance on activity adjustment and pacing, regulation of sleep-wake rhythms and daily routines, psychological support for distress-related symptoms, environmental modifications at home, work, or school, and pharmacological treatment when clinically indicated [1, 8, 9].

 

[Sean]

Methods
Patients with ME/CFS (n = 16) completed a 12-week recumbent isometric yoga program. Fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Scale [FS]), functional status (Performance Status scale [PS]), depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression subscale [HADS-D]), anxiety (HADS anxiety subscale [HADS-A]), alexisomia (Shitsu-Taikan-Sho Scale [STSS]), and alexithymia (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale [TAS-20]) were assessed before and after the intervention.

All subjective self-report. Not even a single token nod towards some objective measures.

So of course their primary finding is more research funding is required.

Gotta keep that gravy train rolling along.

SNAFU.