A recent study reported in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine studied the effect of magnet therapy on fibromyalgia pain. The results of the study, although inconclusive, show that magnet therapy reduced fibromyalgia pain intensity enough in one group of study participants to be "clinically meaningful" the researchers reported. This recent study, conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia studied results from 94 patients who were suffering from fibromyalgia and were randomly divided into 4 groups. Half of these patients were in 2 control groups, one that received fake magnets and the other that just followed their treatment routine as usual. The other 2 groups received active magnetic pads; one which provided whole body exposure to a uniform magnetic field and the other group used a pad which exposed the subjects to a magnetic field that varied both spatially and in polarity. The study tracked results over a six month periods. The two groups that slept on pads with active magnets generally showed improvement in number of tender points on the body and in outcome scores of pain intensity level, as well as functional status at the end of the six month test. The control group subjects did not exhibit the same type of improvement in their symptoms.