Locate a Practitioner

The best way to locate a skilled trigger point therapist is to visit the website of the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists.  This site has a directory of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists by state.  It also features a useful "symptom checker" (which illustrates common pain referral patterns of various muscles), and has other information useful for those in pain.

Another professional group you may want to learn about is the International Myopain Society.  Based on their most recent conference it appears that most members are more interested in treating fibromyalgia with medication than in treating myofascial pain syndrome without drugs, but there are a number of health care practitioners in the organization who are very knowledgeable about drug-free myofascial therapy.  Unfortunately their list of members provides only the country they are from.  This might help if you are in Denmark, but is not much use if you live in a large country like the United States.

Physicians near you may or may not be able to properly treat myofascial pain.  Trigger points can be treated by injection in a doctor's office if the doctor is trained to locate them, which, unfortunately, is rare.  As Jennifer Finley MD noted in an emedicine.com article,

A skilled examiner can provide accurate diagnosis of MP [myofascial pain].  Unfortunately, most medical school and residency training programs do not cover this common condition adequately.  Locating TrPs is the most important part of the physical examination.  TrPs tend to occur in characteristic locations in individual muscles. Travell and Simons' Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual is considered the criterion standard reference on locating and treating TrPs. (http://www.emedicine.com/pmr/topic84.html)

The most common error is to inject the site where the patient is complaining of pain rather than the trigger point causing it.  Good trigger point work requires well-tuned palpation skills, detailed knowledge of anatomy and pain referral patterns, as well as understanding of posture and body mechanics.

If you are lucky enough to live in the Pittsburgh area there are a number of good practitioners to choose from since the Pittsburgh School of Pain Managemente is there.  In particular I willl mention Richard Finn, the Director of the school, and Jeff Lutz and Tanya Cheney, who teach at the school.  I know from personal experience that all three are astute clinicians.  Their contact information can be found on the National Association Website.

If you live near Bethesda, MD you can make an appointment at Pain and Rehabilitation Medicine for first rate care.  Their website is www.painpoints.com.

This page is part of a larger website intended to educate people about trigger point bodywork and other methods of non-invasive, drug-free pain relief.  Myofascial therapy was developed by physicians in the last few decades.  Its primary purpose is to eliminate myofascial pain, but it also improves movement and posture.

I offer myofascial treatment and pain management services for the Bergenfield, Englewood Cliffs, Fairlawn and Glen Rock area of northern NJ, though I am not immediately nearby. If you live in a town such as Oradell, Paramus, Rochelle Park and Closter NJ I would still be the closest certified therapist. Cresskill, Dumont, Emerson and Harrington Park NJ also fall into this category, and much of the rest of New Jersey. Somewhat distant towns are mentioned because I have seen many times that people are glad to travel even several hours to get rid of pain.

Copyright 2007 Joseph Hoane