Relationship between Headache and Myofascial Pain: Systematic Review

Aims: To systematically investigate the relationship between headache and myofascial.

Study design: Systematic Review.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, Riyadh Elm University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Between June 2020 and November 2021.

Methodology: A systematic search of the literature was conducted between 2006 and 2019 in seven electronic databases (Brain, Pub Med, ScienceDirect database, NCBI, Web of Science Core Collection, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Saudi digital library). The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was followed and the clinical question in PICO format was the relationship between headache and myofascial pain. The initial search resulted in 663 articles. Only 9 studies were selected for qualitative synthesis after fulfilling the eligibility criteria (three double blind Randomized Controlled Trials RCTs and one retrospective cohort study). The results showed that there is a consistent trend in the literature supporting the relationship between headache and MFP.

Results: The first search showed 663 articles. A total of 110 duplicates were eliminated. After filtering by reading titles and abstracts and discarding any extraneous topics or goals that are not directly connected to this systematic review, the first phase comprised 49 publications. There were 14 papers that needed to be reviewed and evaluated for eligibility. Nine articles were chosen for the final evaluation after full text screening.

Conclusion: The findings point to a significant association between headache disability and musculoskeletal disorders of the head and neck. The absence of an agreement in Orofacial Pain research methodology, unified approaches, has an impact on the optimal collecting requirements for a systematic review.