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Updated: Sep 27, 2025
Author Spotlight: Methodologies and Advancements of Chronic Pain Management Research
Published on: January 5, 2024
Effects of Foam Rolling vs. Manual Therapy in Patients with Tension-Type Headache: A Randomized Pilot Study
Gemma V Espi-Lopez1, Marta Ingles1, Juan J Carrasco-Fernandez1
1Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Physical Therapy, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
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.
