Immediate effects of visuomotor tracking with the head on cervical sensorimotor function and pain in chronic neck pain patients.

Abstract

Working in awkward and sustained postures is, besides psychosocial risk factors, the most reported physical risk factor for neck pain. Accurate proprioception is fundamental to correcting awkward head-to-trunk positions, but impaired proprioceptive performance has been found in patients with chronic neck pain. The aim was to compare the effectiveness of two different interventions in a workplace set-up on sensorimotor performance and pain sensitivity in people with chronic neck pain. A total of 25 patients with chronic neck pain participated in this double-blind study. Patients were randomly allocated to the visuomotor tracking task group or the video group (watching a massage video, imagining themselves being massaged). The primary outcomes were cervical joint position sense acuity and pressure pain threshold of the cervical spine, evaluated by a blinded assessor. There were significant time by group interactions for cervical joint position sense acuity (F1;23: 4.38; p= 0.048) and pressure pain threshold (F1;23: 5.78; p= 0.025), with the tracking task group being more accurate in cervical joint position sense testing and less pain sensitive for pressure pain threshold. The visuomotor tracking task improves cervical joint position sense acuity and reduces pressure pain threshold immediately after intervention in people with chronic neck pain.