The effectiveness of Trigger Point Therapy

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The Effectiveness of Trigger Point Therapy on the Frozen Shoulder

Travell and Simons portrayed trigger points without exaggeration as the scourge of mankind (Davies “The frozen shoulder workbook” 41). Trigger points are so painful that they can reduce the quality of someone’s life. They can take away the ability for someone to do simple things like open a car door, wash their hair, or even worse perform their job. Trigger points are very common and most people will experience a trigger point in their muscles at any given time. This paper will examine the effectiveness of trigger point therapy on the frozen shoulder.

One of the most common areas to get a trigger point is in the shoulder. When a person has severe reduction in range of motion, strength and pain with movement in the shoulder it is usually labeled a frozen shoulder. The term frozen shoulder is a very broad term in the medical community and not really considered a diagnosis. A frozen shoulder can have many causes a person can have tendonitis or adhesive capsulitis and they will all be labeled as a frozen shoulder.

Travell and Simons who are considered pioneers in trigger point therapy strongly disagree with that thought process. They feel that their research proves that trigger points are the leading cause of frozen shoulder. When trigger point therapy is used on the frozen shoulder they state the frozen shoulder will resolve. They conducted many studies that proved trigger points could not only be located that they could be treated effectively.

Travell and Simons define “a trigger point as a highly irritable localized spot of exquisite tenderness in a nodule in a palpable taut band of muscle tissue.”(Davies, “The frozen shoulder ...

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...gger point. One of the explanations as to why trigger point therapy is not so widely known is that many physicians do not get any training on myofascial pain. As Clair Davies states about physicians in “The Frozen Shoulder Workbook” “The vast majority cling to antiquated beliefs regarding the treatment of pain” (40).

The research and patient positive outcomes supports the effectiveness of trigger point therapy. Trigger point therapy is an effective therapy treatment for a patient with a frozen shoulder. If a patient with a frozen shoulder gets a skilled therapist and a doctor with knowledge of trigger points they will have a faster recovery and be pain free. The real question is not the effectiveness of trigger point therapy but why it is not more widely used.

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