A review of low quality evidence about exercise for neck pain
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“Specific strengthening exercises as a part of routine practice for chronic neck pain, cervicogenic headache and radiculopathy may be beneficial,” but “when only stretching exercises were used no beneficial effects may be expected.”
However, “no high quality evidence was found” in the 26 experiment reviewed. The data was also spread thin over many different exercises and ways of measuring success, a lot of apples to oranges comparisons. So overall the results were mostly mixed, confusing, unimpressive and highly subject to interpretation — and therefore also subject to the huge bias in favour of therapeutic exercise.
There’s been no real improvement since the first version of this review in 2005. They keep adding more low quality studies to the pool of data, but the bottom line hasn’t moved: it’s still mediocre results based on poor quality evidence. I don’t trust any conclusions here.
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
BACKGROUND: Neck disorders are common, disabling and costly. The effectiveness of exercise as a physiotherapy intervention remains unclear.
OBJECTIVES: To improve pain, disability, function, patient satisfaction, quality of life and global perceived effect in adults with neck pain.
SEARCH METHODS: Computerized searches were conducted up to February 2012.
SELECTION CRITERIA: We included single therapeutic exercise randomized controlled trials for adults with neck pain with or without cervicogenic headache or radiculopathy.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently conducted selection, data extraction, 'Risk of bias' assessment, and clinical relevance. The quality of the body of evidence was assessed using GRADE. Relative risk and standardized mean differences (SMD) were calculated. After judging clinical and statistical heterogeneity, we performed meta-analyses.
MAIN RESULTS: Six of the 21 selected trials had low risk of bias. Moderate quality evidence shows that combined cervical, scapulothoracic stretching and strengthening are beneficial for pain relief post treatment (pooled SMD -0.35, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.60, -0.10) and at intermediate follow-up (pooled SMD -0.31, 95% CI: -0.57, -0.06), and improved function short term and intermediate term (pooled SMD -0.45, 95% CI: -0.72, -0.18) for chronic neck pain. Moderate quality evidence demonstrates patients are very satisfied with their care when treated with therapeutic exercise. Low quality evidence shows exercise is of benefit for pain in the short term and for function up to long-term follow-up for chronic neck pain. Low to moderate quality evidence shows that chronic neck pain does not respond to upper extremity stretching and strengthening or a general exercise program. Low to moderate quality evidence supports self-mobilization, craniocervical endurance and low load cervical-scapular endurance exercises in reducing pain, improving function and global perceived effect in the long term for subacute/chronic cervicogenic headache. Low quality evidence supports neck strengthening exercise in acute cervical radiculopathy for pain relief in the short term.
AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Low to moderate quality evidence supports the use of specific cervical and scapular stretching and strengthening exercise for chronic neck pain immediately post treatment and intermediate term, and cervicogenic headaches in the long term. Low to moderate evidence suggests no benefit for some upper extremity stretching and strengthening exercises or a general exercise program. Future trials should consider using an exercise classification system to establish similarity between protocols and adequate sample sizes. Factorial trials would help determine the active treatment agent within a treatment regimen where a standardized representation of dosage is essential. Standardized reporting of adverse events is needed for balancing the likelihood of treatment benefits over potential harms.
related content
- “Strength training and stretching versus stretching only in the treatment of patients with chronic neck pain: a randomized one-year follow-up study,” an article in Clinical Rehabilitation, 2008.
- “Dose-Response Relationship of Specific Training to Reduce Chronic Neck Pain and Disability,” an article in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2006.
- “Stretching exercises vs manual therapy in treatment of chronic neck pain: a randomized, controlled cross-over trial,” an article in Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2007.
- “Effect of neck exercises on cervicogenic headache: a randomized controlled trial,” an article in Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2010.
- “Active neck muscle training in the treatment of chronic neck pain in women: a randomized controlled trial,” an article in Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003.
- “Effects of neck muscle training in women with chronic neck pain: one-year follow-up study,” an article in Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 2006.
- “Neck muscle training in the treatment of chronic neck pain: a three-year follow-up study,” an article in Europa Medicophysica, 2007.
- “Dose-Response Relationship of Specific Training to Reduce Chronic Neck Pain and Disability,” an article in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2006.
- “Effect of therapeutic exercise on pain and disability in the management of chronic nonspecific neck pain: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials,” an article in Physical Therapy, 2013.
- “Long-term effects of therapeutic exercise on nonspecific chronic neck pain: a literature review,” an article in J Phys Ther Sci, 2015.
- “The effects of training and detraining after an 8 month resistance and stretching training program on forward head and protracted shoulder postures in adolescents: Randomised controlled study,” an article in Manual Therapy, 2015.
These two articles on PainScience.com cite Gross 2015 as a source:
- PS Complete Guide to Tension Headaches — Detailed, readable self-help for stubborn tension headaches, especially due to muscle pain in the neck and shoulders
- PS Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — A complete guide to chronic neck pain and the disturbing sensation of a “crick”
