Abstract

Physical therapy is commonly used to reduce pain. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of physical therapy in reducing pain. The rationale for conducting this study was because people who are pursuing a physical therapy career and/or plan on completing physical therapy throughout their lifetime should know how effective it is at reducing pain. Four participants participated in the study. Participants were asked to rate pain from zero (no pain) to 10 (extreme pain) during every treatment session. These data were collected from the initial evaluation to the discharge visit. Each patient had an average treatment span of 61 days and met about 10.5 times during that time period. Furthermore, patients started their physical therapy with a high pain score ranging from five to nine and ended with a pain score of zero. The main finding from this study was that physical therapy treatments were effective at reducing pain. Patients rated their pain as a zero after 10.5 visits.