Needling therapy has been widely used for pain control. " Needling " includes all procedures with penetration of a needle through the skin with injection of medication (injection therapy) or without introduction of any drug (dry needling). In either injection or dry needling, the site of treatment can be at the site of pain (direct needling) or far from the site of pain (remote needling). Needl...

Rather than providing the customary few pages with abstracts of the current literature, for this special topic issue of JMMT on myofascial pain syndrome we have been able to enlist the expertise of Dr. David Simons and Jan Dommerholt to share with us their critical review of what they consider some of the more relevant recent literature on this topic. As the co-author of the most authoritative ...

This paper discusses the defi nition of a common, but incompletely understood syndrome associated with soft tissue pain, referred to as myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). It begins with a description of the syndrome and its frequently associated fi nding, the myofascial trigger point (MTrP). The paper describes current published data about biochemical, mechanical, and physical properties of the MT...

Pain is a complex and multifactorial phenomenon that depends on the interaction of biopsychosocial factors. Between 15-25% of adults suffer from chronic pain at some point in their lives. Cervical chronic pain is considered a public health problem affecting 9.6% men and 21.9% women, according to the latest National Health Survey 2011-12. A high percentage of medical consultations due to muscle ...

Scalene myofascial pain syndrome is a regional pain syndrome wherein pain originates over the neck area and radiates down to the arm. This condition may present as primary or secondary to underlying cervical pathology. Although scalene myofascial pain syndrome is a well known medical entity, it is often misdiagnosed as being some other neck pain associated with radiculopathy, such as cervical d...

BACKGROUND OF HYPOTHESIS Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is the most common musculoskeletal pain disorder of the head and neck area. In the past, several theories were put forth to explain its origin and nature, but none proved complete. Myofascial pain responds to changing psychological states and stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, anger, depression and chronic pain are direct contributional facto...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of a chewing exercise on pain intensity and pressure-pain threshold in patients with myofascial pain. METHODS Twenty-nine consecutive women diagnosed with myofascial pain (MFP) according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria comprised the experimental group and 15 healthy age-matched female were used as controls. Subjects were asked to chew a gum stick for 9 mi...

Myofascial pain syndrome is an important health problem. It affects a majority of the general population, impairs mobility, causes pain, and reduces the overall sense of well-being. Underlying this syndrome is the existence of painful taut bands of muscle that contain discrete, hypersensitive foci called myofascial trigger points. In spite of the significant impact on public health, a clear mec...

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is described as the sensory, motor, and autonomic symptoms caused by myofascial trigger points (TrPs). Knowing the potential causes of TrPs is important to prevent their development and recurrence, but also to inactivate and eliminate existing TrPs. There is general agreement that muscle overuse or direct trauma to the muscle can lead to the development of TrPs. M...