Mild systemic heat agents, including infrared whole-body hyperthermia, are used as treatment options in multimodal rehabilitation programs for fibromyalgia in Germany. However, no randomized controlled clinical trial exists on their effectiveness for this condition.~This study is designed as an add-on study to evaluate the additional benefit of mild walter-filtered near infrared hyperthermia and a standard multimodal rehabilitation program compared to a standard multimodal rehabilitation program only. Standard multimodal rehabilitation is configured as usually applied in clinical trials with exercise, cognitive behavioral therapy, and health education as the main treatment components.~Mild walter-filtered near infrared hyperthermia (heating-up to 38.1 degrees C body core temperature followed by a 15-min heat retention period) is administered twice a week over 3 weeks during a rehabilitation hospital stay.~Primary outcome measures are measured at baseline, postintervention, 3 and 6 months postintervention. Analysis is done by intention to treat, for significance testing Repeated Measures ANCOVA is used.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether mild walter-filtered near infrared hyperthermia produces an additional benefit when applied as an adjunct to standard multimodal rehabilitation compared to standard multimodal rehabilitation only in patients with fibromyalgia.