The Effects of Relaxation Techniques on Pain, Fatigue and Kinesiophobia in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Three Arms Randomized Trial

April 5, 2021 updated by: Gülşah Kesik, Hacettepe University
Even though, current treatments including IVIG, corticosteroids, biological agents can provide positive effects on MS symptoms, MS cannot be cured completely today. Therefore, in addition to the available medical treatment options, patients may tend towards complementary and integrative therapies. Relaxation techniques are one of the non-pharmacological and side-effect-free therapy options that are currently used to alleviate the symptoms of many different chronic diseases. Progressive muscle relaxation exercise (PMR) and Benson relaxation technique (BRT) are two common types of relaxation techniques recommended for symptom management in chronic diseases owing to simple to learn and apply compared to other complementary and integrative methods for patients. PMR is uncomplicated and low-cost method, originally designed by Jacobson (1938), which helps individuals to feel calmer through consecutive muscle tension and relaxation of a muscle group. This method can relieve muscle tension, facilitate sleep, and reduce severity of pain and fatigue. There are studies in the literature reporting the positive effects of PMR on fatigue, sleep quality, quality of life, anxiety and stress in MS patients. One of these techniques which is well tolerated is BRT, designed by Herbert Benson in the 1970s as a nonpharmacologic and behavioral method. This technique led to relaxation using mental imagery and mediation. BRT creates a relaxation influence in the body by decreasing the sympathetic nervous system activity and increasing the parasympathetic nervous system activity. There are few studies in the literature reporting that BRT is beneficial on pain and fatigue in MS patients.To the best of our knowledge, there is no study on the impact of relaxation techniques on pain, fatigue and kinesophobia in MS patients. The aim of this study was to examine and compare the effects of PMR and BRT on abovementioned symptoms in MS patients.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

80

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Turkey
    • None Selected
      • Ankara, None Selected, Turkey, 06100
        • Hacettepe University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • over the age of 18
  • having relapsing-remitting MS type and not had an attack during the study
  • not receiving any other complementary and integrative therapy during the research,
  • with an Expanded Disability Status Scale score of 5.5 and below,
  • volunteer to participate in study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • having physical or mental health problems that can interfere with communication
  • having heart failure, COPD, asthma disease, renal failure, musculoskeletal problem such as fracture, plaster cast, amputation, fibromyalgia, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, deep anemia (hmg <8 mg / dl) or oncological diagnoses
  • not having undergone any surgical operation in the last 3 months

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: PMR

The PMR intervention involving tensing and relaxing the body muscles accompanied with deep breathing. The researchers told each

participant to sit in a soundless and breathable room and in a comfortable position before each session at their home. The participants performed tensing and relaxing for each body part in order, starting with the facial muscles and head, followed by neck, shoulders, chest, abdomen, legs, and feet; all muscle tension and relaxation procedures were performed with deep breathing. The participants were instructed to tense a specified group of muscles for 5 s and relax it for 10 s while breathing out. Moreover, throughout this exercise, the participants imagined a wave of relaxation flowing over their body.
Behavioral: PMR: Progressive Muscle Relaxation
tensing and relaxing the body muscles accompanied with deep breathing
Experimental: BRT
Within the scope of this technique, first of all, the participants were asked to focus on a word that relieves them such as love, health or well-being. And so, the participants were asked to be in comfortable position in a silent and breathable room with the closed eyes, relax their muscles from the sole of their feet and progressing up to their face gradually, keep them relaxed, accompanied with deep breathing, be aware of their breathing, exhale gently. They continue these practices for 20 minutes and try to relax their muscles. After finishing the duration, they sit quietly for several minutes with eyes closed and later with eye opened.
Behavioral: BRT:Benson Relaxation Technique
relaxation using mental imagery and mediation
No Intervention: CG
Regarding CG, the participants were invited to the same room and received only a single time attention-matched education on "Living with MS"; including definition of MS, dietary advices for MS patients. The attention-matched education was performed face to face and lasted for 10 min. All participants in the three study groups also received usual treatment and care.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Fatigue
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Fatigue Severity Scale
12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Chronic Pain
Time Frame: 12 weeks
VAS
12 weeks
Kinesiophobia
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Tampa Scale for Kinesophobia
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Hacettepe University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: gulsah kesik, MSc, Research Assisstant

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 22, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 30, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

March 15, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 5, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 5, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

April 6, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 6, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 5, 2021

Last Verified

June 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 333 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Florida Department of Health)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

IPD Plan Description

Private and personal information of the participants is not open to sharing.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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