Small study suggests green light therapy might reduce anxiety in patients with fibromyalgia who are taking opioids for chronic pain
TUESDAY, Nov. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Green light therapy might decrease anxiety, particularly fear-based anxiety, in patients with fibromyalgia and reduce the use of opioids to manage chronic pain, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, held from Oct. 22 to 25 in New Orleans.
Padma Gulur, M.D., from Duke University in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and colleagues randomly assigned 45 patients with fibromyalgia who were on opioids to blue, clear, or green light therapy via wearing study glasses for a minimum of four hours per day for two weeks.
The researchers found that only the green group had decreases in anxiety scores, with a significant difference on the fear question, in particular. The decline in the anxiety score for the green group was 4.2 points greater than that for the clear group (95 percent confidence interval, 9.8 to 1.4; P = 0.138). This trend toward difference in anxiety scores between green and clear groups persisted when adjusting for age or compliance. For the blue group versus the clear group, there was no difference observed between the anxiety domain scores.
“We found that although their pain scores remained the same, those who wore the green eyeglasses used fewer opioids, demonstrating that their pain was adequately controlled,” Gulur said in a statement. “We would recommend the green eyeglasses treatment for those with fibromyalgia and are studying patients with other chronic pain conditions to determine if it would be beneficial.”
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