Short-Term Magnesium Therapy Alleviates Moderate Stress in Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial
What this study found
Primary outcome: stress (DASS-42) at 28 days showed no significant difference between magnesium and placebo in the overall sample. In mildly/moderately stressed patients (DASS-42 stress ≤25), magnesium significantly reduced stress from 22.1 ± 2.8 to 12.3 ± 7.0 versus placebo from 21.9 ± 2.3 to 22.9 ± 11.9 (p = 0.003); no effect in severely stressed patients (p = 0.320). Secondary outcomes: in the mildly/moderately stressed subgroup, pain severity (BPI) decreased with magnesium (5.7 ± 1.3 to 5.1 ± 1.7) vs placebo (5.3 ± 0.7 to 5.6 ± 1.2; p = 0.029). No significant differences for other…
- Study & population
- Prospective double-blind randomized controlled trial with two parallel groups (magnesium vs placebo) in adults with fibromyalgia diagnosed by ACR 2016 criteria and a baseline DASS-42 stress score >18; conducted at the University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand, France, from April 2019 to May 2020; four visits (inclusion, randomization, end of treatment at day…
- Intervention
- Oral Chronomag magnesium chloride: 2 tablets of 50 mg once daily for 28 days (total 100 mg Mg per day).
- Key limitation
- Small sample size; short duration (28 days); magnesium dose (100 mg/day) may be insufficient for severely stressed patients; secondary endpoints underpowered; exploratory subgroup analyses; single-center; baseline magnesium levels not deficient; potential placebo effects.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Patients suffering from fibromyalgia often report stress and pain, with both often refractory to usual drug treatment. Magnesium supplementation seems to improve fibromyalgia symptoms, but the level of evidence is still poor. This study is a randomized, controlled, double-blind trial in fibromyalgia patients that compared once a day oral magnesium 100 mg (Chronomag®, magnesium chloride technology formula) to placebo, for 1 month. The primary endpoint was the level of stress on the DASS-42 scale, and secondary endpoints were pain, sleep, quality of life, fatigue, catastrophism, social vulnerability, and magnesium blood concentrations. After 1 month of treatment, the DASS-42 score decreased in the magnesium and placebo groups but not significantly (21.8 ± 9.6 vs. 21.6 ± 10.8, respectively, p = 0.930). Magnesium supplementation significantly reduced the mild/moderate stress subgroup (DASS-42 stress score: 22.1 ± 2.8 to 12.3 ± 7.0 in magnesium vs. 21.9 ± 11.9 to 22.9 ± 11.9 in placebo, p = 0.003). Pain severity diminished significantly (p = 0.029) with magnesium while the other parameters were not significantly different between both groups. These findings show, for the first time, that magnesium improves mild/moderate stress and reduces the pain experience in fibromyalgia patients. This suggests that daily magnesium could be a useful treatment to improve the burden of disease of fibromyalgia patients and calls for a larger clinical trial.