Efficacy of cupping therapy in individuals with fibromyalgia. A systematic review of randomized clinical trials

Abstract

Background: Fibromyalgia is a chronic and idiopathic condition and is among the most common causes of generalized chronic pain, even affecting psychological and cognitive aspects.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of cupping therapy on pain, quality of life, sleep disorders, and the impact of the disease in subjects with fibromyalgia.

Methods: We searched the Pubmed, CINAHL, Epistemonikos, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Randomized controlled trials involving adults with fibromyalgia undergoing cupping were included. Pain intensity, quality of life, sleep disturbances, and the impact of fibromyalgia were assessed. We have reported the results using descriptive statistics and narrative synthesis.

Results: Two articles with a total of 155 participants were included. Large effect sizes were found for pain intensity, moderate for quality of life, and low for the impact of fibromyalgia and sleep disorders. However, the certainty of the evidence is low for most outcomes except for sleep disorders.

Conclusions: There is a discrepancy in the efficacy of cupping therapy in improving pain intensity, quality of life, sleep disturbances, and disease impact in people with fibromyalgia. Future high-quality randomized clinical trials are required.

Keywords: Cupping therapy; Fibromyalgia; Physical therapy; Rehabilitation.