The immediate effects of thearapeutic taping on musculoskeletal pain

Context: Therapeutic taping is commonly used as a preventative intervention; however, its utilization as an immediate pain management intervention is still unknown. This study assesses the immediate effectiveness of therapeutic taping on musculoskeletal pain. Objective: Evaluate the immediate effects of three therapeutic taping interventions on musculoskeletal pain. Design: Experimental, single-group repeated measures design. Participants: 29 physically active volunteers (14 male, 15 female) with a mean age of 20.9 ± 1.98. Methods: Participants were induced with delayed onset muscle soreness to their elbow flexors of the non-dominant arm. Forty-eight hours after induction, participants’ baseline pain was measured using the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NRS). Then, each participant received each of the three interventions (Kinesio® Tape, Elastikon®, and placebo) in a stratified order following a Balanced Latin Square model. Main Outcome Measures: Pain via the NRS, for each of the four conditions: baseline, placebo, Kinesio® Tape, Elastikon®. Results: A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted along with paired samples t-tests for the post-hoc analysis. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. with a Bonferroni adjustment (alpha = 0.05/6 = 0.0083) for the post-hoc analysis. There was a significant treatment effect (F(3, 84)=22.4, p=0.001). The post hoc analysis indicated that both the Kinesio® Tape (p=0.001) and the Elastikon® (p=0.001) significantly reduced pain compared to baseline. The placebo had no significant effect on pain compared to baseline (p=0.009) although it approached significance. Both the Kinesio® Tape (p=0.001) and the Elastikon® (p=0.001) significantly reduced pain more effectively than the control condition. There was however, no difference between the Kinesio® Tape and the Elastikon® (p=0.50). Conclusion: Based on the results, both Kinesio® Tape and Elastikon® significantly reduced pain associated with DOMS. The placebo intervention had no significant effect compared to the baseline, but did approach significance. Furthermore, although both therapeutic tapes reduced pain, there was no difference between the Kinesio® Tape and the Elastikon®. Although therapeutic taping was successful in relieving pain associated with DOMS, the type of tape used did not matter. Therefore, clinicians can consider using therapeutic tape to modulate pain to facilitate rehabilitation when movement is appropriate, but limited by pain.