Abstract

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic pain condition that is not well understood. Many available medications and treatments currently prescribed for fibromyalgia have shown only limited success for pain control. Thus many FMS patients are choosing available complementary and alternative therapies (also called complementary and alternative medicine, or "CAM") for pain control. The term complementary refers to therapies that are used in conjunction with conventional medicine, while the term alternative refers to treatments that replace traditional therapies.

The purpose of this study was to explore the use and perceived effectiveness of complementary and alternative therapies for pain in FMS. The results of the study will provide clinicians with information about therapies that are being used by FMS patients for control of pain outside of or in addition to conventional medical therapies. This information will allow health care practitioners to identify any potential interference with prescribed therapy, and may also identify useful treatment for control of pain for other FMS patients.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3211811; ProQuest document ID: 304956018. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Jennifer Helms, PhD, RN

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Descriptive/Correlational

Research Approach

Quantitative Research

Keywords:

Pain Management, Fibromyalgia, Alternative Medicine

Advisor

Ann Coleman

Second Advisor

Linda Hodges

Third Advisor

Sharon Coon

Fourth Advisor

Sandra Pope

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Degree Year

2006

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2022-09-29

Full Text of Presentation

wf_yes

Download

Share

COinS