Researcher Craniosacral Therapy Relieves Chronic Neck Pain

In a study, scientists were able to demonstrate the efficacy of craniosacral therapy in chronic neck pain. Overall, the pain and general condition of the patients improved significantly.

Picture: contrastwerkstatt- fotolia

The study authors radomized 54 subjects with nonspecific neck pain to two groups. Group 1 received eight 45-minute craniosacral therapy sessions, the second group a similar-appearing sham therapy. Eight weeks after baseline and three months after completion of the study, researchers collected data on average pain intensity over the past seven days. In addition, they evaluated the target criteria of pain in movement, pressure pain thresholds, functional limitations, quality of life and well-being, anxiety and depression, stress perception, pain acceptance, mindfulness and global improvement.

The subjects of the craniosacral therapy group benefited significantly compared to the sham treatment in terms of pain reduction. This lasted three months after the end of the intervention. The subjects treated with craniosacral therapy scored significantly better than those in the comparison group for most of the secondary outcome measures. More information can be found here.