Effectiveness of massage therapy for shoulder pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Young-Ran Yeun
PMID 28603376WHAT IT FOUND
Massage given alone or with other treatments reduced short-term shoulder pain more than no treatment or placebo, and pain relief remained at follow-up, but massage was not shown to be better than active treatments such as physical therapy or acupuncture.
Key findings
01In 15 studies, massage, alone or with other treatments, reduced short-term shoulder pain more than inactive therapies.
02In five studies with follow-up, massage, alone or with other treatments, still reduced shoulder pain.
03In four studies comparing massage with active treatments, the short-term difference was not clear.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The review combined many different massage types, body areas, durations and control treatments, so the pooled result may not apply to any one massage technique. Some studies gave massage together with usual care, stretching, cold application, hot packs or exercise, so the effect of massage alone cannot be separated. The included trials were often small and had short follow-up, and the authors said care is required when generalizing the results. Risk-of-bias scores ranged from 5 to 11 out of 12, and the authors noted low-quality trials were included. The results varied widely across studies (I2 81% short-term and I2 84% long-term). The active-comparison subgroup had only four studies and did not reach significance (p=0.06). The search was limited to English and Korean studies.
Declared interests
No funding source or conflict-of-interest declaration appears in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the positive short-term result as showing massage beats physical therapy or acupuncture. The four studies comparing massage with active treatments did not show a clear advantage (p=0.06).