Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Apr 19, 2022; 12(4): 615-622
Published online Apr 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i4.615
Lidocaine in fibromyalgia: A systematic review
Jozélio Freire de Carvalho, Thelma L Skare
Jozélio Freire de Carvalho, Health Sciences Institute, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador 40231-300, Brazil
Thelma L Skare, Rheumatology Unit, Evangélico Mackenzie Hospital, Curitiba 80730-420, Brazil
Author contributions: de Carvalho JF and Skare TL contributed equally to this work; de Carvalho JF and Skare TL designed the research study, performed the research, and analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jozélio Freire de Carvalho, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Health Sciences Institute, Federal University of Bahia, Rua das Violetas, 42, ap. 502, Salvador 40231-300, Brazil. jotafc@gmail.com
Received: March 19, 2021
Peer-review started: March 19, 2021
First decision: May 5, 2021
Revised: May 15, 2021
Accepted: February 23, 2022
Article in press: February 23, 2022
Published online: April 19, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Lidocaine is used to treat fibromyalgia patients.

Research motivation

As there are some articles that evaluated the role of lidocaine as therapy of fibromyalgia patients, the authors thought it is important to systematically review this literature.

Research objectives

The authors had the objective to perform the first systematic review on lidocaine in the treatment of fibromyalgia.

Research methods

Systematic review based on PRISMA guidelines and PROSPERO register.

Research results

Most studies showed reduction of pains measured by visual analogic scale after lidocaine infusion.

Research conclusions

This systematic review showed that lidocaine is effective and safe for fibromyalgia treatment, mainly in short-term.

Research perspectives

Future studies with large number of participants to evaluate the safety and efficacy of lidocaine for fibromyalgia is needed, as short and long-term studies.