Ankle taping can improve proprioception in healthy volunteers.

BACKGROUND: Taping is a common technique to treat inversion ankle sprains, but the effects of tape on proprioception are still not clear. The purpose of this study was to establish whether proprioception would be modified by the use of ankle tape. To do so we studied joint position sense (JPS) in healthy volunteers using three-dimensional (3D) movement analysis systems. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty healthy volunteers (mean age and SD = 23.2 ± 4.2) were asked to actively reproduce four different ankle positions: 10 degrees of dorsiflexion, neutral, 10 degrees and 20 degrees of plantarflexion. The absolute difference between the estimated angle and the target angle was used to assess JPS. This difference was named Error. Subjects were randomly assigned to the control (n = 21) or the intervention (n = 19) groups. Members of the intervention group received ankle tape for a lateral ligament sprain in the non-dominant leg. A t-test was used to evaluate the results. RESULTS: Tape significantly improved JPS for the dorsiflexion position (p = 0.038). Neutral was the most accurately reproduced position, and the remaining positions were overestimated for both groups. CONCLUSION: Taping improved proprioception in healthy volunteers, and 3D movement analysis was a useful method to accurately quantify joint position sense. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Because ankle proprioception is critical to the functional success of surgical and rehabilitation treatments, these results regarding proprioception are of particular importance because ankle taping is often used in preventing ankle sprains and it is a common treatment after ankle injuries.

Efficacy of a multidisciplinary fibromyalgia treatment adapted for women with low educational levels: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Multidisciplinary treatments of fibromyalgia (FM) have demonstrated efficacy. Nevertheless, they have been criticized for not maintaining their benefits and for not being studied for specific populations. Our objectives were to determine the efficacy of a multidisciplinary treatment for FM adapted for patients with low educational levels and to determine the maintenance of its therapeutic benefits during a long-term followup period. METHODS: Inclusion criteria consisted of female sex, a diagnosis of FM (using American College of Rheumatology criteria), age between 18 and 60 years, and between 3 and 8 years of schooling. Patients were randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 treatment conditions: conventional pharmacologic treatment or multidisciplinary treatment. Outcome measures were functionality, sleep disturbances, pain intensity, catastrophizing, and psychological distress. Analysis was by intent-to-treat and missing data were replaced following the baseline observation carried forward method. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-five participants were recruited. No statistically significant differences regarding pretreatment measures were found between the 2 experimental groups. Overall statistics comparison showed a significant difference between the 2 groups in all of the variables studied (P < 0.0001). Mixed linear model analysis demonstrated the superiority of the multidisciplinary treatment in all of the studied variables at posttreatment. The differences were maintained at 12-month followup in sleep disturbances (P < 0.0001), catastrophizing (P < 0.0001), and psychological distress (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Multidisciplinary treatment adapted for individuals with low educational levels is effective in reducing key symptoms of FM. Some improvements were maintained 1 year after completing the multidisciplinary treatment.