Detailed guides to painful problems, treatments & more

All Archived Updates for:

Complete Guide to Frozen Shoulder

This page lists all 95 updates for one book on PainScience.com, Complete Guide to Frozen Shoulder For a more general summary of everything new around PainScience — recent updates for all articles, new articles, blog posts, and new study summaries, see What’s New on PainScience.com?

  1. Jun 17, 2021 — Proofreading — It was time for an annual book tune-up: a few dozen minor errors have been corrected.
  2. Jun 12, 2021 — Science update — Small but fascinating science update about Ascani et al, exploring a possible link between frozen shoulder and COVID.
  3. May 8, 2021 — Minor polishing — A little editorial polish, and a bit of elaboration about the role of psychotropic effects.
  4. Nov 11, 2020 — Science update, ultrasound — Minor citation to Ainsworth on ultrasound for shoulder pain (negative, of course).
  5. Nov 11, 2020 — Major expansion, posture section — Upgraded from a brief dismissal of the topic to a full discussion, from 100 words to 1000.
  6. Nov 1, 2020 — Minor upgrade, case study — Added some additional discussion of the implications of Tanya’s story.
  7. Sep 26, 2020 — Major upgrade, steroid injections — Much more thorough exploration of the plausibility and evidence for exploiting the “WOO” that is probably created by steroid injections.
  8. Jul 20, 2020 — Minor addition, introduction — Expanded on the summary of symptoms just a little, emphasizing the quality and potential severity of the pain.
  9. Jul 11, 2020 — Upgraded, diagnosis intro — Added more information based on a very helpful video that shows “fake” shoulder ROM achieved entirely with good shoulder girdle motion, while the shoulder joint proper remains completely stuck.
  10. May 28, 2020 — Editing and more content — Added subsection about passive ROM testing, and did some miscellaneous polishing.
  11. May 1, 2020 — Expanded, diagnosing sensitization — Added a bunch more specific information about how to recognize sensitization.
  12. May 1, 2020 — New chapter, sensitization — A new chapter about the role of sensitization in frozen shoulder.
  13. May 1, 2020 — Added detail, functional freezing chapter — Added a good story about my mother-in-law’s broken arm, which nicely illustrates a neurologically mediated ROM lockdown.
  14. Feb 6, 2020 — New chapter, opioids —
  15. Feb 3, 2020 — Improvements — Added some significant improvements while reviewing a couple weeks after first publishing the chapter, most notably a good summary of recent icing controversies.
  16. Feb 3, 2020 — Updated — Added some basic information about intermittent fasting.
  17. Jan 22, 2020 — New section, icing and heating —
  18. Jan 5, 2020 — New sub-topic, oral corticosteroids — Compared and contrasted oral and injected corticosteroids; added some colour/context about anabolic steroids.
  19. Dec 13, 2019 — Minor editing — Minor editing here and there all over the book… but also organizing, planning, and paving the way for more updates. My work here is never done.
  20. Nov 22, 2019 — Minor improvement, functional freezing chapter — Minor but interesting: a couple new paragraphs about joint stiffness as a non-specific protective mechanism that may be analogous to functional freezing of the shoulder.
  21. Nov 21, 2019 — Major update, muscle relaxants — Added a lot more detail, especially about psychoactive “muscle relaxants,” and many new references.
  22. Nov 16, 2019 — New chapter, Muscle relaxants (Robaxin, Robaxacet, etc), psychoactives, and sedatives —
  23. Oct 30, 2019 — New chapter, about coarse tissue vibration —
  24. Oct 28, 2019 — Science update, nature of the beast — Added an interesting reference about a link between carpal tunnel syndrome and heart diease, for context and comparison.
  25. Sep 10, 2019 — Expanded, bogus treatments list — Added Reiki and magnet therapy, plus a bunch of other minor improvements.
  26. Sep 10, 2019 — Expanded, massage therapy chapter — Added discussion of general health benefits of massage therapy.
  27. Sep 5, 2019 — Addition, differential diagnosis — Added facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, a particularly good example of a condition that causes diagnostic confusion in the shoulder.
  28. Aug 7, 2019 — Book launch — The frozen shoulder guide has been free since I first introduced it in the summer of 2016. Two years and hundreds of hours of development later, I am putting it behind the paywall, the first addition to my inventory of ebooks in many years. It is for sale for $20 USD. All existing boxed set customers will get access automatically — someone who bought a set in 2009 is getting a new book out of that purchase a decade later.
  29. Aug 1, 2019 — Expanded — Added a fascinating cautionary tale of surgery gone wrong.
  30. Aug 1, 2019 — New section, testing for functional limitations —
  31. Jul 31, 2019 — New section, aquatic therapy, flotation, Epsom salts —
  32. Jul 31, 2019 — New section, about windows of opportunity —
  33. Jul 30, 2019 — Expansion — Added a detailed overview of all the treatment options reviewed in this tutorial.
  34. Jul 29, 2019 — New section, Tiger Balm, A535, and friends —
  35. Jul 25, 2019 — New section, reviewing all the most bogus treatments for frozen shoulder. —
  36. Jul 23, 2019 — Clarification — Made it clear that frozen shoulder is a particularly strong example of an important phenomenon, the importance of non-specific risk factors in chronic pain.
  37. Jun 27, 2019 — New chapter, trigger point therapy — Before the update: just a couple of paragraphs about self-massage of trigger points. After: now there’s a concise but complete 2000-word whirlwind tour of the world of trigger point therapy, spelling out the relevance to frozen shoulder and plenty of specific advice for frozen shoulder patients.
  38. May 21, 2019 — New sub-topic — Fascinating addition to the tutorial: “Shoulder injury related to vaccine administration.”
  39. Apr 24, 2019 — Expanded — Imaging is now discussed in its own small section, and I beefed it up with information about the role of diagnostic ultrasound.
  40. Mar 18, 2019 — Science update — Added information and citations on the condition of the joint in severe cases, and the link to Dupuytren’s contracture.
  41. Feb 15, 2019 — New section, about cases caused by infection after surgery —
  42. Jan 19, 2019 — Minor science update — Added support from another researcher (Bunker) for abolishing the term “adhesive capsulitis.”
  43. Jan 19, 2019 — Science update — Added information about the prevalence of frozen shoulder in the general population and in diabetics.
  44. Jan 5, 2019 — Clarification, diagnosis section — Made it clear that frozen shoulder is a diagnosis of exclusion.
  45. Jan 5, 2019 — Addition, nature of the beast — Defined the condition more precisely and thoroughly. Added a substantive footnote about the exact anatomy affected.
  46. Oct 11, 2018 — New section, Desensitization and disinhibition —
  47. Oct 11, 2018 — New section, shockwave ultrasound — Predictably gloomy conclusions! But it’s now here for thoroughness.
  48. Oct 11, 2018 — Science update — Cited and analyzed Jewell et al with regards to the poor results from physical therapy overall, and massage specifically.
  49. Oct 11, 2018 — Improved — Significantly improved the answer to the question “How would functional freezing work?” by including sensitization.
  50. Oct 11, 2018 — Science update — A small but important update: cited Hollmann et al, who demonstrated in a small study that at least some people with frozen shoulder aren’t frozen when anaesthetized, strongly suggesting that at least some cases are not caused by capsular contracture. Cool and promising.
  51. Aug 25, 2018 — New section, Stretching for frozen shoulder —
  52. Aug 25, 2018 — New section, Strengthening for frozen shoulder —
  53. Apr 26, 2018 — New section, about Oolo-Austin Trigenics® Procedure (OAT) —
  54. Jan 25, 2018 — New section, ultrasound — Very “negative”: there’s almost no hope that it works.
  55. Jan 25, 2018 — Science update — A couple new citations and details about steroid injections.
  56. Dec 1, 2017 — Improved — Beefed up information on over-the-counter medications.
  57. Aug 10, 2017 — New section, posture —
  58. Jul 6, 2017 — Science update — Cited new evidence on the limited benefits of steroid injections for rotator cuff tendinopathy (Mohamadi) — an interesting contrast with the effects of steroids on frozen shoulder.
  59. Jun 28, 2017 — New section — Important revisions and a new section based on important new evidence (Wong et al) that frozen shoulder is not a self-limiting condition as everyone has assumed for decades.
  60. May 12, 2017 — New section —
  61. May 12, 2017 — Improvements — Added more movement recommendations.
  62. May 12, 2017 — New section —
  63. Feb 18, 2017 — Improved — Added some history, which is nice new context for this topic.
  64. Jan 20, 2017 — New section — A substantial and interesting reader-submitted case study plus a little commentary.
  65. Nov 29, 2016 — New section, shrunk not stuck —
  66. Nov 28, 2016 — Science update — Revised introduction to treatments, citing Diercks as an interesting example.
  67. Nov 28, 2016 — New section, article abstract —
  68. Oct 15, 2016 — Science update — Littlewood et al now provides some more substantive support for the theory of functional freezing and related rehabilitation methods.
  69. Oct 3, 2016 — Clarification — Added an interesting clarification about my wife’s strange experience with frozen shoulder.
  70. Oct 3, 2016 — Improvements — Many miscellaneous improvements.
  71. Sep 22, 2016 — Expanded — Added much more information.
  72. Sep 22, 2016 — Science update — Added brief discussion of rotator cuff abnormalities in asymptomatic people.
  73. Sep 14, 2016 — Improvements — Editing, and added a diagram of the hypothetical relationship between adhesive and functional freezing.
  74. Sep 8, 2016 — Revision — Some revisions to the discussion of treating systemic inflammation with diet, and added an important link out to a new article on that topic.
  75. Sep 4, 2016 — Expanded — Added more information.
  76. Sep 4, 2016 — New section —
  77. Aug 13, 2016 — Expanded — Added information about joint capsule inflating.
  78. Aug 13, 2016 — Expanded — Added interesting new evidence about arthrographic distension.
  79. Aug 13, 2016 — New section —
  80. Aug 12, 2016 — Expanded — Added recommendation to try a ketogenic diet.
  81. Aug 5, 2016 — Science update — Added more general evidence about treatment efficacy.
  82. Jul 27, 2016 — Improvements — Several clarifications about diagnosis, and some new citations and expert quotes. Added a paragraph about x-rays.
  83. Jul 20, 2016 — New section —
  84. Jul 20, 2016 — New section —
  85. Jul 20, 2016 — Science update — Added more information about range of motion and reliability of assessment of ROM.
  86. Jul 18, 2016 — Improvements — Expanded and added several new citations.
  87. Jul 18, 2016 — Minor addition — Added a little about smoking as a risk factor.
  88. Jul 18, 2016 — Minor addition — Added footnote about other frozen joints, like frozen hips.
  89. Jul 9, 2016 — New section —
  90. Jul 9, 2016 — Upgraded — Article is now substantive enough for removal of “half-baked” disclaimer, and a title change from frozen shoulder “primer” to “guide.”
  91. Jul 5, 2016 — New section —
  92. Jun 16, 2016 — New section —
  93. Jun 5, 2016 — New section —
  94. May 31, 2016 — Miscellaneous improvements — Added links to several authoritative/useful sources. General editing to clean up and clarify recent additions. More descriptive headings. Added related reading recommendations.
  95. May 7, 2016 — New section —