Objective The study aimed to investigate the effect of dry needling into trigger points of the sternocleidomastoid muscle in migraine headache patients. Design Forty subjects with a migraine headache, originating from myofacial trigger points into the sternocleidomastoid muscle (20 subjects in dry needling group and 20 subjects in control group) volunteered to participate in this study. The subjects in the treatment group received three sessions of dry needling in the myofascial trigger point region. Headache frequency, headache intensity, headache duration, drug consumption, muscle thickness, pressure pain threshold, and cervical range of motion were assessed before, immediately after intervention, and at 1-mo follow-up period. In addition, this article was extracted from Iranian Register of Clinical Trials Number IRCT20171219037956N1. Results The experimental group showed significant reduction in the headache parameters immediately after the intervention and at 1-mo follow-up, as compared with the control group. The pressure pain threshold of sternocleidomastoid muscle, cervical range of motion, and muscle thickness significantly increased in the dry needling group in comparison with the control group (P < 0.001). Conclusions The application of dry needling technique caused an improvement in symptoms of migraine patients. Therefore, this technique may be prescribed for treating migraine patients with myofacial trigger points in the sternocleidomastoid muscle.

Background: Migraine patients often have painful trigger points, especially in the area of head and neck. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effect of myofascial release and stretching techniques in the management of migraine headache. Materials and Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial study on 40 migraine patients. The subjects in the experimental group received three sessions with a duration of 20 min per session techniques. Databases were analyzed using 2 × 3 repeated-measures analyses of variance ( P < 0.05). Results: Experimental group showed a significant reduction in pain intensity ( P < 0.001) and the neck disability index score ( P < 0.001) and an increase in cervical range of motion ( P < 0.001) in all time points after the intervention as compared with baseline and control group ( P < 0.001). Conclusion: Myofascial release and stretching techniques were effective in improving symptoms in patients with migraine headache.

BACKGROUND Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a worldwide disorder with an increasing prevalence. The quality of life (QOL) of the patients may be influenced by reflux disease. Diaphragmatic breathing (DB), as well as aerobic exercise (AE), may improve the symptoms of reflux disease, although it remains a controversial issue. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of AE and DB on QOL and lower esophageal sphincter (LES) pressure of patients with moderate to severe reflux. METHODS This was a case-control study that was conducted for 8 weeks among patients with moderate to severe GERD. The block randomization method was designed to randomize patients into three groups (AE, DB, and control) to achieve equal sample sizes. The control group received omeprazole 20 mg once daily. The other groups, in addition to omeprazole, received AE and DB. QOL and LES pressure were measured before and after the study by Questionary and Manometry method, respectively. RESULTS 75 patients were enrolled in this study. Positive effects of DB on LES pressure was approved (p = 0.001). DB had significantly more effects on QOL than aerobic exercise (p = 0.003). AE can significantly improve QOL in patients (p = 0.02) but no significant change in LES pressure (p = 0.38). There was no change in the control group for both variables. CONCLUSION AE had no effects on LES pressure but can improve QOL of the patients. DB had more effects on QOL than AE, so injured or disable patients with reflux who cannot do AE, can benefit from DB to improve their reflux symptoms.