A research study comparing Swedish massage and myofascial release for persons with fibromyalgia.
The Study Question: Does a manual therapy that addresses fascia offer more benefit than one that focuses on muscle relaxation for reducing symptoms of fibromyalgia?
Participants: 12 female participants with self-reported widespread muscle pain for at least 3 consecutive months, with tenderness in at least 11 out of 18 specific soft tissue tender points. Their average age was 34.5 and each had lived with fibromyalgia for an average of 2.6 years.
The Study Plan: Weekly 90-minute sessions of either Swedish massage or myofascial release for 4 consecutive weeks (total of 6 hours of treatment per participant). Delivered by 3 licensed massage therapists who had used Swedish massage with clients with fibromyalgia and had advanced training in myofascial release. Work was performed on the same regions (neck, back, legs, arms) on all participants.
Results: Both groups showed improvements in symptoms. There was no significant difference between the two groups. However, a secondary analysis showed the 5 of the 8 participants in the myofascial release group reported clinically significant improvement while only one of the four participants in the Swedish massage group reported comparable improvement. Overall, the results appeared to suggest that myofascial release was more effective than Swedish massage.
My Take-Away: We should try both techniques if you are living with fibromyalgia and determine what works best for you (including a combination of both techniques). The more experience you have of bodywork, the better your intuition for what will work best improves. Fibromyalgia is different for each person and different each day for any given person. We need to determine at each session what your goals are and choose accordingly.
From the AMTA Massage Therapy Journal, Winter 2013. Study originally reported in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies (Jul 2013).
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