Do changes within a manual therapy treatment session predict between-session changes for patients with cervical spine...

Area of Science:

• Physiotherapy
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Manual Therapy

Background:

• Physiotherapists utilize within-session changes to adjust manual therapy for neck pain.
• Predicting between-session outcomes is crucial for effective treatment refinement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the validity of within-session changes as predictors of between-session changes in patients with neck pain undergoing manual therapy.
• To determine the relationship between immediate and subsequent treatment effects on range of motion, pain intensity, and centralization.

Main Methods:

• Assessed 70 treatment pairs from 29 patients with sub-acute non-specific neck pain.
• Measured range of motion (ROM), pain intensity, and centralization before and after each session.
• Utilized regression analysis to evaluate the predictive power of within-session changes on between-session changes.

Main Results:

• Within-session changes explained 26-48% of variability in between-session ROM changes and 6% for pain intensity.
• The proportion of ROM change maintained between sessions ranged from 42% to 63%.
• Within-session improvement significantly predicted between-session improvement for ROM, pain intensity, and centralization, with 71-83% correct classification.

Conclusions:

• Within-session changes in range of motion and pain centralization are valid predictors of between-session outcomes in manual therapy for neck pain.
• Within-session changes in pain intensity may also predict between-session outcomes.
• These findings support using immediate patient responses to guide manual therapy for cervical spine disorders.