Effects of muscle specific as compared to movement specific muscle energy technique in mechanical neck pain: A randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Muscle energy technique (MET) is found to be effective for the management of neck pain and in addition to the muscle specific approach, clinicians may also adopt movement specific approach for METs. However, the literature is deficient in terms of comparison of muscle specific and movement specific METs in the management of mechanical neck pain. OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of muscle specific and movement specific METs in the management of mechanical neck pain. METHODS: A single blind parallel design randomized controlled trial was conducted on 66 participants with mechanical neck pain ranging from 40-80 mm on visual analogue scale (VAS), aged between 19-44 years with pain and limitation on cervical motion. Once included, the participants were randomly allocated to two groups, namely the muscle specific MET group and the movement specific MET group. Outcome measures included VAS, Neck Disability Index (NDI) and cervical range of motion (ROM). RESULTS: No significant differences ( p > 0.05) were observed, neither immediately nor after 5 days, between muscle specific and movement specific MET in terms of VAS, NDI and ROM. However, a significant difference ( p < 0.05) was observed in both groups in terms of pre- and post-analysis for all outcome variables. CONCLUSIONS: Both muscle specific and movement specific METs are effective in the management of mechanical neck pain, with no significant differences between the two treatment techniques.