| Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the immediate effect, on pain threshold, following a single treatment of tender points in the upper trapezius muscle involving a classical and a modified application of the strain/counterstrain technique.
Methods: Fifty-four subjects presenting with mechanical neck pain, 16 men and 38 women, aged 18–64 years old, participated in this study. Subjects underwent a screening process to establish the presence of tender points in the upper trapezius muscle. Subjects were divided randomly into three groups: group A was treated with the classical strain/counterstrain technique, group B was treated with the modified application of the technique which included a longitudinal stroke during the application of strain/counterstrain, and group C was a control group. The outcome measure was the visual analogue scale assessing local pain elicited by the application of 4.5 kg/cm2 of pressure on the tender point. It was assessed pre-treatment and 2 min post-treatment by an assessor blinded to the treatment allocation of the subject.
Results: Within-group changes showed a significant improvement in the visual analogue scale following either classical or modified application of the strain/counterstrain technique (P < 0.001). The control group did not show any change (P > 0.3). Pre-post effect sizes were large in both strain/counterstrain groups (D = 1.1), but small in the control group (D = 0.01). Differences were found between both strain/counterstrain groups as compared to the control group (P < 0.001), but not between both strain/counterstrain groups (P = 0.8).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that strain/counterstrain was effective in reducing tenderness of tender points in the upper trapezius muscle. The application of a longitudinal stroke during the strain/counterstrain did not influence the effectiveness of the classical description of the technique. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher. Click on the above link for full text; subscription required. |
