Patient-oriented rehabilitation in the management of chronic mechanical neck pain: a randomized controlled trial

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220 patients, suffering from chronic mechanical neck pain, were randomly assigned to treatment using either a patient-oriented (Pa-O) or prescription-oriented (Pr-O) therapeutic approach to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing pain and disability. The Pr-O approach is characterized by an initial treatment prescription, which remains unchanged throughout the treatment period. Alternatively, prescription of treatment using the Pa-O approach is performed at the beginning of each treatment session, and is therefore constantly adapting to the patient's changing physical status. Results at 1 month indicated that the patient-oriented approach improved pain and disability significantly more than the prescription-oriented approach, with high patient satisfaction.