Often these areas of muscle are myofascial trigger points.

People with tension-type headache often use spinal manipulation, soft tissue therapy, and myofascial trigger point treatment.

Trigger Point techniques provide relief from the pain of Myofascial Trigger points.

A myofascial trigger point consists of multiple contraction knots, which are related to the production and maintenance of the pain cycle.

Some practitioners use the term "myofascial therapy" or "myofascial trigger point therapy" referring to the treatment of trigger points, usually in medical-clinical sense.

De-activation of Myofascial Trigger Points (MTrP)

In 1976, Travell began using the term "myofascial trigger point" and in 1983 published the reference Myofascial pain & dysfunction: the trigger point manual.

Pain is also common after a massage if the practitioner uses pressure on unnoticed latent or active trigger points, or is not skilled in myofascial trigger point therapy.

Multimodal therapy is the most successful treatment option, and includes α-blockers, phytotherapy, and protocols aimed at quieting the pelvic nerves through myofascial trigger point release with psychological re-training for anxiety control.

For example, in a systematic review on needling therapies in the management of myofascial trigger points, only 8 of the 23 trials described the minimally acceptable criteria for diagnosing a trigger point.

In the treatment of trigger points for persons with myofascial pain syndrome, dry needling is an invasive procedure in which a filiform needle is inserted into the skin and muscle directly at a myofascial trigger point.

Proper dry needling of a myofascial trigger point will elicit a local twitch response (LTR), which is an involuntary spinal cord reflex in which the muscle fibers in the taut band of muscle contract.

In recent years the prognosis for CP/CPPS has improved greatly with the advent of multimodal treatment, phytotherapy and protocols aimed at quieting the pelvic nerves through myofascial trigger point release and anxiety control.

A 2008 review in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of two recent studies concludes they present groundbreaking findings that can reduce some of the controversy surrounding the cause and identification of myofascial trigger points (MTPs).

With this technique, they have been able to investigate the biochemical milieu of muscle in subjects with active, latent, or absent myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) and to contrast this with that of the noninvolved muscle.

A 2007 meta-analysis examining dry needling of myofascial trigger points concluded that the effect of needling was not significantly different to that of placebo controls, though the trend in the results could be compatible with a treatment effect.

Travell and Simons hold that most of the common everyday pain is caused by myofascial trigger points and that ignorance of that basic concept could inevitably lead to false diagnoses and the ultimate failure to deal effectively with pain.

In the same review, two studies tested the efficacy beyond placebo of dry needling in the treatment of myofascial trigger point pain, but, in one, the dropout rate was 48% and it was neither blinded nor randomized, and the other study used potentially active interventions in the control group.

The term myotherapy was originally coined by Bonnie Prudden to describe a specific type of trigger point therapy which she developed in the 1970s based on the earlier work of Drs Travell and Simons who conducted extensive research into the cause and treatment of pain arising from myofascial trigger points.