Effects of psycho-ballet strengthened using Afro-Cuban dances as therapy against fibromyalgia

Abstract

Introduction: fibromyalgia is a disease in which no apparent proof is found to explain an intense diffuse pain accompanied by a great quantity of symptoms like un-restful sleep, fatigue, depression and anxiety, stiffness in the morning, and irritable bowel syndrome. The body, movement and expression are trained using psycho-ballet.
Objective: to assess the effects of the art of movement at the psychical and emotional level, paying attention to pain, with the pretension that the patient explore it through his body and his movement in a secure space and accompanied by people in the same situation, what facilitates communication.
Method: the study was carried out with a group of 27 women averagely aged 41 years, diagnosed with fibromyalgia under pharmacological treatment. Before the beginning of the treatment, and after finishing it, they answered to several clinical interviews and applied different tests of psychological evaluation: Spielberg´s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Rosenberg’s self-steem scale, and mood states profile test. They underwent 20 sessions of 90 minutes (60 minutes of Psycho-ballet and 30 minutes of cognitive techniques), one session weekly during 5 months.
Results: patients report the reduction of fatigue, anxiety, depression and pain perception, a vitality increase, and improvement of self-image and self-steem.
Conclusions: physic-artistic activity provided by psycho-ballet improves life quality in this kind of patients, strengthens their communication ability, improves self-steem and vitality, and reduces fatigue and pain perception.