Effectiveness of craniosacral therapy in musculoskeletal pain disorders

Pajor Kacper, Szpyt Justyna, Turoń-Skrzypińska Agnieszka, Rotter Iwona. Effectiveness of craniosacral therapy in musculoskeletal pain disorders. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2020;10(9):915-926. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2020.10.09.112 https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2020.10.09.112 https://zenodo.org/record/4062203 The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. § 8. 2) and § 12. 1. 2) 22.02.2019. © The Authors 2020; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 23.09.2020. Revised: 30.09.2020. Accepted: 30.09.2020. Effectiveness of craniosacral therapy in musculoskeletal pain disorders Kacper Pajor1, Justyna Szpyt1, Agnieszka Turoń-Skrzypińska2, Iwona Rotter2 Students’ Science Club of Department of Medical Rehabilitation and Clinical Physiotherapy, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, ul. Żołnierska 54, 70-204 Szczecin, Poland Department of Medical Rehabilitation and Clinical Physiotherapy, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, ul. Żołnierska 54, 70-204 Szczecin, Poland Address for correspondence Kacper Pajor, e-mail: kontakt@kacperpajor.pl Abstract Introduction Craniosacral therapy is becoming more and more popular among therapists around the world. Its activity is based on primary respiratory mechanism (PSM), a natural craniosacral rhythm consisting of two phases: flexion and extension. During therapy, the therapist, using appropriate manual techniques performed with minimal force, restores the physiological craniosacral rhythm, restores the mobility of the cranial sutures and affects the mobility of the central nervous system. Due to not fully understood mechanisms of action and controversial foundations, the effectiveness of craniosacral therapy is often questioned. Purpose The purpose of this research review is to determine the effectiveness of craniosacral therapy on musculoskeletal pain disorders. Material and methods The PubMed database was searched using "Craniosacral therapy" for clinical trials and randomized clinical trials. Studies with other forms of therapy or placebo, conducted on newborns and older than 15 years and were excluded. These exclusions narrowed the search results to 5 works. Results Each study reported statistically significant improvement in at least one type of perceived pain in intervention group. In all studies, in at least two of the assessed tests (assessing pain and functionality), the difference between the result before the therapy and the result achieved after the therapy improved more for the group undergoing craniosacral therapy. Moreover, a review of studies showed insufficient level of research explaining the physiological foundations of craniosacral therapy. Conclusions 1. Craniosacral therapy can effectively reduce pain of musculoskeletal origin and increase the functionality of patients. 2. The mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of craniosacral therapy and its theoretical foundations require further research. Keywords: craniosacral therapy, manual therapies, osteopathic manipulative treatmen