Trigger Points and the Pain Labyrinth
 

Welcome to "Trigger Points and the Pain Labyrinth". Trigger Points are responsible or play a part in most forms of chronic pain, including:

The purpose of this website is to explain the roll that trigger points play in pain and dysfunction.

I hope to stimulate the sufferers of chronic pain, even if they have been told that they must "learn to live with the pain", to seek out a therapist experienced in treating trigger points to see if they can relieve their pain. I hope that the uninitiated therapist is enticed to research the topic further, purchase some of the recommended books and seek out a suitable training course so that they can incorporate this knowledge into the way they assess and treat clients.

Below is an introduction to Trigger Points. For more detail about Trigger Points, the problems they cause and how they can be treated please use the navigation buttons on your left.

Because of the complexity of the human organism, the ongoing development of the trigger point "knowledge bank" and the growing number of ways to treat trigger points this website will alway be "under construction". I will endeavour to ensure that the link structure does not get too complex, and will put a last updated date on the links in the sitemap. Please return often to see new developments.

What are Trigger Points?

Trigger Points are small, tender points in muscles that have the ability to cause pain, tenderness and other symptoms in areas distant to where the actual trigger point is located. Sometimes this means in a larger area around the trigger point itself, but often it means in another part of the body.

Trigger points are the cause of, or a contributing factor, in most cases of chronic pain. They can also be responsible for a variety of conditions that are not often considered to be the result of a muscle problem. A few examples include nausea, dizziness and ringing in the ear.

Why "the Pain Labyrinth"?

I use the term "pain labyrinth" to describe the trigger point phenomenon because treating chronic pain is often like finding your way out of a maze. The fact that the pain and its cause can often be in different parts of the body tends to lead a lot of therapists down the wrong path. The area of the pain is treated  with no result - the therapist finds themselves at a dead end. The treatment is finished and the client must look further if they are to find relief from their pain.

If the therapist happens to find the trigger point causing the pain, the right path out of the centre of the labyrinth, it does not always lead to a solution. Some labyrinths are larger and more complex than others. The therapist may be confronted with many other choices and paths before they finally find their way out, and the client is rid of their pain. Perhaps there is a postural problem that locks the trigger point in place, perhaps this postural problem is, in itself, locked in place due to another trigger point somewhere else in the body, perhaps new movement patterns, a change in sleeping position, stress management or dietary changes are needed to assist in the treatment of the trigger point(s). These are just some of the many paths a therapist may have to go down in order to lead their client out of the labyrinth that is pain.

Luckily, there are certain areas in muscles that tend to harbour trigger points and a trigger point in a particular area of a particular muscle tends to refer pain and other symptoms in a more or less similar way in different individuals. Two eminent professors, Dr's Janet Travell and David Simons, spent many years tirelessly sifting through many thousands of scientific papers on trigger points (although different authors often referred to them by different terms) and conducting extensive research of their own. The result of this work was the compendium "Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual" a two volume set. These meticulously researched and referenced medical texts  provide extensive documentation of the nature of referred pain from hundreds of common trigger points, along with a list of the most common complications encountered in the treatment of trigger points. In doing so, they have provided many therapists with instructions on how to assist their patients navigate their way out of the pain labyrinth.

Nature, however, with all its intricacies, often complicates things. Like the deranged labyrinth designer who designs a labyrinth with no solution, sometimes despite correct identification of trigger points contributing to the pain pattern, and knowledge of how they generally should be treated, there are unknown or insurmountable complications and the therapist together with the patient stay trapped in the middle of the pain labyrinth - no significant relief is found.

More often though, the therapist and client are able to work together to negotiate their way partly or entirely out of the labyrinth - significant or complete pain relief is the result. I use the word "together" because in the successful treatment of trigger points the client is rarely a passive recipient. They are often given exercises or changes to make in order to do to assist in their recovery. This also reduces the number of treatments needed, allowing them to take charge of their own wellbeing.

© 2004 Brian Dicks

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