Pain relief due to physiotherapy doesn't change the motor function of the shoulder

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of different training methods in physiotherapy on pain relief and change in proprioception and kinesthesia of the shoulder. Further, the connections between pain relief and change in motor function of the shoulder will be investigated.

Randomised trial.

Ambulatory care.

Two groups of unspecific shoulder pain patients (group1 n = 12, group2 n = 10). One group (n = 8) of non-symptomatic subjects.

The first shoulder-pain group was trained using flexible foil, whilst flexible bands were used to train the patients in the second group. Training period was 12 weeks.

Pain of the shoulder was evaluated through functional pain assessment (Constant-Murley score) before, halfway through and after intervention. Proprioceptive and kinaesthetic ability was measured by an active-active angle-replication test for the shoulder before and after intervention. The data of the shoulder patients was compared to the group of non-symptomatic subjects.

Pain was reduced significantly in both groups (p < .05) whereas no changes were measured for the ability to replicate angles of the shoulder.

This suggests that pain relief in the shoulder is not associated with enhancement of the investigated parameters in motor function.