Effects of Major Ozone Autohemotherapy on Physical Functionality and Quality of Life in Fibromyalgia Syndrome

Background

Fibromyalgia syndrome is a chronic condition marked by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, poor sleep and reduced physical function. Its underlying mechanisms are not fully understood, and conventional treatment - typically a mix of medication, graded exercise and physical therapy - often leaves patients with only partial relief. This has led researchers to explore complementary approaches, including major ozone autohaemotherapy (MAH), in which a small volume of the patient's own blood is mixed with a medical ozone-oxygen gas mixture and reinfused. A team of clinicians in Turkey set out to measure whether a course of MAH produced measurable change in physical functioning and quality of life for people living with fibromyalgia.

Study design

The study followed 40 adults aged 18 to 65 who had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome and were being treated at an algology (pain medicine) clinic. All participants received the same intervention - there was no placebo or comparison group. Treatment consisted of 13 sessions of major ozone autohaemotherapy: two sessions a week for the first five weeks, then one session a month for a further three months. Researchers tracked outcomes using two validated tools - the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), which measures the effect of the condition on daily function, and the SF-36, a general health-related quality-of-life survey. Both were completed at baseline and at three further points over roughly 17 weeks of follow-up.

Findings

Scores on both the FIQ and the SF-36 improved significantly at every follow-up assessment compared with the period before it (p < 0.05). The largest gains were seen early on, between the baseline assessment and the end of the initial five-week treatment block (p < 0.001 for both measures). Meaningful further improvement was also recorded across the SF-36 subscales between the end of the initial treatment phase and the final assessment three months later (p ≤ 0.02). No negative or null results were reported for the outcome measures used.

What the authors concluded

The authors stated that this was the first study to track the effect of major ozone autohaemotherapy on fibromyalgia patients using repeated FIQ and SF-36 measurements taken at set intervals. They concluded that the course of MAH was associated with improvements in quality of life and general health status in people with fibromyalgia syndrome.

Limitations of this study

This was a single-arm study with no control or placebo group, so improvements cannot be separated from natural fluctuation in fibromyalgia symptoms, placebo response, or the effect of regular clinical attention over the study period. The sample was small (40 patients) and drawn from a single clinic, which limits how far the results can be generalised. Treatment was not blinded. The authors describe the design as a "prospective cross-sectional study", though the repeated-measures structure - the same patients assessed at multiple time points - is more typical of a longitudinal or pre-post observational design; readers should be aware of this terminology when comparing it with other literature. Larger, controlled, ideally blinded trials are needed to confirm these findings before major ozone autohaemotherapy can be considered an established treatment for fibromyalgia.