Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points

Objective: To determine the difference in effectiveness of positional release therapy (PRT) compared with therapeutic massage (TM) in treating trigger and tender points in the upper trapezius muscle. Background: Trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle are common and can be painful. Therapeutic...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bethers, Amber Hancock
Format: Others
Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7256
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8256&context=etd
id ndltd-BGMYU2-oai-scholarsarchive.byu.edu-etd-8256
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-BGMYU2-oai-scholarsarchive.byu.edu-etd-82562019-05-16T03:39:01Z Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points Bethers, Amber Hancock Objective: To determine the difference in effectiveness of positional release therapy (PRT) compared with therapeutic massage (TM) in treating trigger and tender points in the upper trapezius muscle. Background: Trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle are common and can be painful. Therapeutic massage is a more traditional treatment method for this condition while PRT is relatively new. Design and Setting: A randomized-group design was used to examine the differences between the 2 treatments for reducing pain and muscle tension. Subjects: Sixty healthy subjects (males = 24, females = 36; age = 27.1 ± 8.8 years; wt = 75.2 ± 17.9 kg; ht = 172.8 ± 9.7 cm) presenting with upper trapezius pain and a trigger point. Subjects were randomly assigned to the TM group or the PRT group. Measurements: Presence of upper trapezius trigger points was found via palpation by a clinician. Level of pain was measured by a visual analog scale (VAS) and pain pressure threshold (PPT) was assessed by a pressure algometer. Muscle thickness was measured by B-mode ultrasound (US) and muscle tension was measured by shear-wave elastography (SWE). Subjects were measured pretreatment and posttreatment and 48 hours later. Results: All measurements showed significant improvements for both treatments. Positional release therapy was more effective (p = 0.05) at reducing pain at day 2 and was able to maintain the pain loss. The SWE and US showed no difference between the treatment groups. There was no significant difference in PPT, but PRT PPT increased each visit while TM dropped significantly at day 2 (p = .003). Conclusion: Both treatments showed a significant ability to reduce pain and acutely decrease muscle stiffness (as measured by SWE) but there were few differences between the treatments. However, there appeared to be a slight benefit for pain reduction with PRT up to 2 days posttreatment. 2018-04-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7256 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8256&context=etd http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ All Theses and Dissertations BYU ScholarsArchive therapeutic massage positional release therapy elastography ultrasound trigger point
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic therapeutic massage
positional release therapy
elastography
ultrasound
trigger point
spellingShingle therapeutic massage
positional release therapy
elastography
ultrasound
trigger point
Bethers, Amber Hancock
Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points
description Objective: To determine the difference in effectiveness of positional release therapy (PRT) compared with therapeutic massage (TM) in treating trigger and tender points in the upper trapezius muscle. Background: Trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle are common and can be painful. Therapeutic massage is a more traditional treatment method for this condition while PRT is relatively new. Design and Setting: A randomized-group design was used to examine the differences between the 2 treatments for reducing pain and muscle tension. Subjects: Sixty healthy subjects (males = 24, females = 36; age = 27.1 ± 8.8 years; wt = 75.2 ± 17.9 kg; ht = 172.8 ± 9.7 cm) presenting with upper trapezius pain and a trigger point. Subjects were randomly assigned to the TM group or the PRT group. Measurements: Presence of upper trapezius trigger points was found via palpation by a clinician. Level of pain was measured by a visual analog scale (VAS) and pain pressure threshold (PPT) was assessed by a pressure algometer. Muscle thickness was measured by B-mode ultrasound (US) and muscle tension was measured by shear-wave elastography (SWE). Subjects were measured pretreatment and posttreatment and 48 hours later. Results: All measurements showed significant improvements for both treatments. Positional release therapy was more effective (p = 0.05) at reducing pain at day 2 and was able to maintain the pain loss. The SWE and US showed no difference between the treatment groups. There was no significant difference in PPT, but PRT PPT increased each visit while TM dropped significantly at day 2 (p = .003). Conclusion: Both treatments showed a significant ability to reduce pain and acutely decrease muscle stiffness (as measured by SWE) but there were few differences between the treatments. However, there appeared to be a slight benefit for pain reduction with PRT up to 2 days posttreatment.
author Bethers, Amber Hancock
author_facet Bethers, Amber Hancock
author_sort Bethers, Amber Hancock
title Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points
title_short Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points
title_full Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points
title_fullStr Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points
title_full_unstemmed Positional Release Therapy Versus Therapeutic Massage in Reducing Muscle Trigger and Tender Points
title_sort positional release therapy versus therapeutic massage in reducing muscle trigger and tender points
publisher BYU ScholarsArchive
publishDate 2018
url https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7256
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8256&context=etd
work_keys_str_mv AT bethersamberhancock positionalreleasetherapyversustherapeuticmassageinreducingmuscletriggerandtenderpoints
_version_ 1719187499341840384