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. 2022 Mar 23;11(7):1778.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11071778.

Effects of Foam Rolling vs. Manual Therapy in Patients with Tension-Type Headache: A Randomized Pilot Study

Gemma V Espi-Lopez  1 , Marta Ingles  1 , Juan J Carrasco-Fernandez  1 , Pilar Serra-Añó  1 , Luis Copete-Fajardo  1 , Juan Jose Gonzalez-Gerez  2   3 , Manuel Saavedra-Hernandez  2   3 , Elena Marques-Sule  1
Affiliations

Effects of Foam Rolling vs. Manual Therapy in Patients with Tension-Type Headache: A Randomized Pilot Study

Gemma V Espi-Lopez et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: This study compares the effect of foam rolling (FR) vs. manual therapy (MT) on pain, pressure pain threshold (PPT), headache disability (HDI) and impact of headache (HIT-6) in patients with tension-type headache (TTH).

Methods: A total of 38 participants with TTH were randomly assigned to an FR group (FRG, n = 13), an MT group (MTG, n = 13) or a control group (CG, n = 12). FRG received FR treatment; MTG received MT techniques; CG received a placebo treatment. The treatment lasted one month. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline, post-intervention and follow-up.

Results: Both FRG and MTG showed significant improvements in all variables after the treatment, but the intervention effect was maintained only for functional disability (p = 0.002 and p = 0.005, respectively), overall disability (p = 0.007; p = 0.030) and HIT-6 (p = 0.002; p = 0.001) at follow-up. After treatment, FRG and MTG presented a significantly higher PPT in right (p = 0.044; p = 0.009) and left suboccipital (p = 0.004; p = 0.021). MTG showed a significantly lower HIT-6 than CG (p = 0.008). No differences between FRG and MTG were found in any variable.

Conclusions: Both FR and MT are effective treatments for the improvement of clinical symptoms in TTH. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings in a larger population.

Keywords: clinical trial; physical therapy modalities; tension-type headache.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors of this research declare that there are no interest associated with it, nor is there any associated external funding, or other interests outside the researchers.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
Protocol treatment with foam rolling.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart according to CONSORT statement for the report of randomized trials.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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