A comparative study about the myofascial manipulation and conventional physiotherapy in cervicogenic headache treatment

Abstract   Introduction: Cervicogenic headache with publicity of 0.4 to 2.5 percent is a kind of chronic headache among people that is originated from cervical spine or soft tissues around the neck and is irradiated towards occulofronto- temporal. There are different points of view on this kind of headache, therefore there is not only one effective way to cure these headaches. In this research 2 unstudied methods, myofascial manipulation and conventional physiotherapy are argued and compared. Materials and Methods: In this research, 42 patients were chosen among those who were qualified and were asked to sign agreement, then they were randomly placed in one of the treatments methods. Data about the intensity, frequency and the interval of the headache was gathered by questionnaire and Data about disability of patients was gathered by Neck Disability Index (NDI). Afterwards the data were analyzed by SPSS software. Conclusions: These results were concluded from software analysis: In myofascial manipulation  method, there was significant difference between intensity (P < 0.001), frequency (P < 0.001), headaches interval (P < 0.001) and patients disability (P < 0.001), before and after the treatment. Between the average of frequency (P > 0.05), headaches interval (P > 0.05) and patients disability (P > 0.05) in follow up period, there was no significant difference on two methods of myofascial manipulation and conventional physiotherapy. Discussion: According to the results, both myofascial manipulation and conventional physiotherapy methods are effective to cure and reduce the signs of cervicogenic headaches, but in one- month follow up, myofascial manipulation method has got better and more permanent effects than conventional physiotherapy. Keywords: Cervicogenic headache, Myofascial manipulation, Conventional physiotherapy.