AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

The purpose of this thesis was to collect and systematically review evidential research about the effectiveness of non-invasive treatment methods towards managing pain. Articles from 2006 to 2014 were used to make sure the research is most up to date. Articles that offered treatment for only latent trigger points were omitted. The method used to write this thesis was a systematic literature review. The search was conducted in several databases such as Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), PubMed, Science Direct, Academic Search Elite (EBSCO). Articles found elsewhere were described as so. The quality of studies was assessed according to PEDro scale. While some of them already had a score, two of them had to be assessed manually by author of this thesis. To summarize articles that made it through the selection criteria, PICO model was used. After reviewing the selected studies, it is clear there is considerable amount of non-invasive therapy methods. Physiotherapist can use these tools to relieve symptoms and treat the conditions, which can cause pain for patients affected by active myofascial trigger points. Studies in this thesis show that the majority of manual, ischemic pressure, stretching and ultrasound techniques are effective tools to treat myofascial trigger points and pain caused by them or are worthwhile to add them to the current treatment plan to increase the effectiveness of problem management. However, it is noted, that only 3 out of 9 studies analysed in this thesis were moderate to high quality and therefore the reader has to make his own conscious and critical decisions about the results whether it should be considered as a treatment tool for his own use. Additionally, there might be a number of studies left out from this thesis due to the mere facto of human.