Effects of acupuncture on neuromuscular control of the head/J.Choi/J.Cholewicki

颈部疼痛(NP)是最常见的三种肌肉骨骼主诉之一，70%的人在生活中的某个时候受到影响。在缓解头颈部肌肉骨骼疼痛方面，一种似乎有效的治疗方案是骨科手法疗法(OMT)。然而，在大多数研究中，用于支持这些发现的措施仅限于主观测试，如治疗师的手动运动范围估计，以及患者提供的调查陈述。因此，这些研究努力还不足以准确确定治疗的有效性，确定其机制，或优化治疗。拟议项目的总体目标是开发敏感和客观的临床研究工具，用于评估头颈系统的运动控制。目的：以控制为导向的绩效测量将是临床研究工具开发的基础。这项探索性研究的第一个目标将是应用这些工具来测量OMT后NP患者头颈系统的位置和力控制的变化。第二个目标是评估NP患者和健康人在头颈系统的位置和力控制方面的差异。如果这些工具显示了NP患者和健康人以及OMT患者之间的差异，那么对OMT损伤和改善的确切机制进行更广泛的研究就完全有理由了。

Neck pain (NP) is one of the three most frequently reported musculoskeletal complaints, affecting 70% of individuals at some point in their lives. One treatment option that appears to be effective in relieving musculoskeletal pain in the head-neck area is osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT). However, in most studies, the measures used to support these findings have been limited to subjective tests such as manual range of motion estimates by therapists, and survey statements provided by patients. Therefore, these research efforts are not sufficient to accurately determine the effectiveness of the therapy, characterize its mechanisms, or optimize treatment. The overall goal of the proposed project is to develop sensitive and objective clinical research tools for the assessment of motor control of the head-neck system. Objective control-oriented performance measures will be the basis for clinical research tool development. The first aim of this exploratory-type study will be to apply these tools to measure changes in position and force control of the head-neck system in patients with NP following OMT. The second aim will be to assess differences in position and force control of the head-neck system between patients with NP and healthy individuals. If these tools demonstrate differences between NP patients and healthy individuals and following OMT, more extensive research into the precise mechanisms of impairment and improvement from OMT can then be fully justified.