Myofascial release and evidence-based practice

File this under 'required reading.'

Please head over to myphysicaltherapyspace.com, specifically to the entry on evidence-based practice and myofascial release interventions. This is an excellent discussion and I hope you all have the chance to take a look at it.

Myofascial release is a modality that is much more widely used in physical therapy than occupational therapy, but it still crops up in OT interventions from time to time. I am especially concerned about so-called craniosacral therapies and the ways that some therapists combine these dubious interventions with other OT quackery.

I really don't have more to add than what was posted by Jason Silvernail, DPT - so please go read his excellent entries!

Comments

Liz Ditz said…
Thanks for the link to the series. I've phttp://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2008/04/myofascial-rele.htmlublished a link here.
12:35 PM
Anonymous said…
I have been a PT for 30 years and have avoided John Barnes all this time. A very smart colleague of mine raved about the course so I drank the koolaid and took MFR1 and unwinding.No doubt these were the most fun and best taught con ed courses I've ever done. To me John Barnes is an amazing healer teacher. The question however is,is this valid evidence based therapy.


If we study Moseley/Butler/loew we know how complex the mind / body/ centralization of complex pain is.It seems that we can effect psycho-emotional stress held in the myofascia with MFR techniques. PT has been slow to embrace the psychological component of pain. We are much better at dealing with this than psychology because we touch, stretch, and exercise patients. We become very limited by evidence based therapy. Its too easy to stick a transducer somewhere and measure VMO activation with SLR. Somato-emotion complex pain relief may be hard to measure. It is the most rewarding therapy I've ever done.
11:03 PM
Christopher J. Alterio said…
Unfortunately the link in the original article is broken, but I will post another for people interested in somatoemotional release http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial2.html
8:48 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deconstructing the myth of clothing sensitivity as a 'sensory processing disorder'

Please note first that there is no formally recognized clinical designation of  'sensory processing disorder.'   It is a term constructed by occupational therapists that has not been formally recognized by the larger medical community. In our clinic we receive many referrals from local pediatricians when parents have concerns about children being overly sensitive to their clothing.  Most often the children referred are from four to seven years old and the families are severely disrupted by the children's behaviors and responses to clothing issues.  Commonly, children will have severely constricted tolerance for certain outfits, want to wear the same clothes repeatedly, complain that clothing is itchy/scratch/bumpy/wiggly/ouchie, and this all leads to disruption of daily dressing routines.  There is no doubt that the behavioral concerns are very real. The pediatricians tend to be appropriately conservative and provide families with good behavioral management suggestions
Read more

On retained primitive reflexes

Each year I receive several emails from colleagues about 'retained primitive reflexes.'  I am also seeing an increased number of reports from local 'health care' providers who are documenting these alleged problems so I thought I would write a summary of my opinion on this topic.   Predatory 'health care' providers including some OTs, PTs, chiropractors, and behavioral optometrists are creating a new 'market' for treating this alleged 'problem.'  Parents should be very wary of these practitioners and other professionals should challenge these practices whenever they are seen. The following is the kind of information that causes concern and was provided to me by a colleague as a sample from a student's IEP: The student continues to demonstrate the following retained primitive reflexes that at times interfere with his ability to demonstrate appropriate adaptive responses: Fear Paralysis Reflex, Moro Reflex, Palmer Reflex, Tonic Labyri
Read more

Twenty years of SIPT - where do we go next?

Standardized tests are periodically discarded or updated because the normative group that the test was developed around may have changed characteristics. I am unaware of any 'industry standards' regarding the life expectancy of standardized tests; rather, professionals in a field tend to come to consensus about the relative usefulness of tests on their own. I would be interested in knowing what other therapists think about the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests - which were published in 1989. I became certified in the administration of these tests seventeen years ago. At first I found them highly useful but the more I gave the tests the more I understood the limitations. Now it has gotten to a point where I do my best to discourage people when they ask for this test - not just because of the inherent weaknesses of the test construction but also because of how old the norms are. There have been some legitimate concerns with the tests including extremely poor test-retest re
Read more