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An internet-delivered positive affect intervention, LARKSPUR, showed initial success in improving emotional well-being, reducing pain and fatigue, and enhancing response to daily positive events in adults with fibromyalgia, though its effects diminished after one month, highlighting the need for further research and optimization.

Fibromyalgia is one of the most prevalent and challenging chronic pains conditions to treat. It involves widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties, affecting a diverse age group. Promising results from positive affect interventions have shown improvement in emotional well-being and pain management in patients living with chronic pain conditions. However, research is lacking on the efficacy of internet-delivered positive affect interventions for patients with fibromyalgia.

To address this gap, Anthony Ong, PhD, and colleagues examined the effects of an internet-delivered positive affect skills intervention—Lessons in Affect Regulation to Keep Stress and Pain Under Control (LARKSPUR)—in enhancing emotional and functional well-being among adults with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). They published their findings in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

The study included 95 patients with FMS aged 50 years and older who were randomly assigned to the LARKSPUR intervention arm (n=49) or emotion reporting/attention control arm (n=46). At the post-intervention and 1-month follow-up time points, the patients completed seven, consecutive, end-of-day, web-based reports capturing positive events, pain, fatigue, positive affect, and negative affect.

The findings provided initial evidence that LARKSPUR can improve responsivity to daily positive events. The intervention also led to greater decreases in negative effect and increases in positive affect following positive experiences, Dr. Ong and colleagues explained.

At post-intervention time point, patients in the LARKSPUR arm showed greater reductions in negative affect ((bL–bC=–0.06; 95% highest posterior density interval [HPD], –0.10 to –0.02; Pd>0.99) and increases in PA (bL–bC=0.10; 95% HPD 0.02-0.19; Pd=o.99) in response to daily positive events compared with the control arm. The researchers noted that these differential gains in affective responsivity were not maintained at 1-month follow-up, with nonsignificant between-group differences in both PA (bL–bC=0.01; 95% HPD –0.08 to 0.09; Pd=0.56) and NA (bL–bC=–0.00; 95% HPD –0.04 to 0.04; Pd=0.51) responsivity.

LARKSPUR also led to greater reductions in pain (bL–bC=–0.20; 95% HPD –0.36 to –0.04; Pd=0.99) and fatigue (bL–bC=–0.24, 95% HPD –0.41 to –0.06; Pd>0.99) following positive experiences at the post-intervention and 1-month follow-up.

“This provides initial support for the efficacy of technology-based platforms, like LARKSPUR, to boost well-being in this population by targeting sensitivity to daily [positive events],” the investigators concluded.

They noted additional research is warranted to replicate the study results in a “larger sample and address optimizing technology to enhance LARKSPUR’s scalability and efficacy for diverse aging adults with fibromyalgia.”