Clinical trial NCT03124238: Effect of Massage Therapy on Muscle Fatigue
Official title: Effect of Massage Therapy on Muscle Fatigue in Individuals With Low Back Pain: Physiological or Clinical Changes
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Low Back Pain
Keywords: massage
Lead sponsor: Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-04-21
Enrollment: 36
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Intervention model description: repeated measures crossover
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The main objective of the current proposal is to investigate the clinical and physiological changes triggered by massage therapy in a group of individuals with chronic low back pain experiencing muscular fatigue.

The investigators believe these objectives are in line with the "2014 Massage Therapy Research Fund research priorities", since the results produced by these investigations will generate knowledge with regard to the short term clinical efficacy of massage therapy and will provide critical information related to the physiological mechanisms underlying massage therapy clinical effects. Most importantly, the combined assessment of clinical and physiological outcomes will also yield key information to identify specific biological components of the massage therapy intervention. Determining the presence of a biological mechanism is, as for any treatment, considered one of the necessary criteria to declare a causal relationship between a specific intervention and its associated clinical effects. The investigators strongly believe that the proposed research will contribute to the identification of specific mechanisms that will complement the emerging clinical evidence supporting massage therapy in the treatment of chronic low back pain.

The proposed research project will involve researchers and future practitioners of massage therapy. In conjunction with a high quality research environment, it is the goal of the investigators to create an educational environment for undergraduate and graduate students that will foster interdisciplinary collaboration in order to ensure a diversified; high quality training of young researchers and clinician scientists working in the field of manual therapies.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Non specific low back pain

Exclusion Criteria:

* Low back pain of specific origin including but not limited to:

herniated disk fractures spondylolisthesis

* inflammatory rheumatic disease
* infectious disease
* neuromuscular disease
* vascular disease
* connective tissue disease
* severe disabling pain
* neurologic signs and symptoms
* pregnancy

Primary outcomes:
measure: Median frequency slope of the lumbar muscles (Hz/s)
timeFrame: assessed immediatly after massage or rest
measure: Maximal isometric force of the lumbar muscles (Newtons)
timeFrame: assessed immediatly after massage or rest
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
name: Martin Descarreaux, DC PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: