Comparative Study of Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization and Massage on Neck Pain

Neck pain is one of the most common problems. Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization and Massage are commonly used methods in the treatment of neck pain. The frequency of application of these methods affects the treatment results. At this point, we reported in our previous study that a single session of IASTM application had an acute effect on pain and joint position sense (Gercek et al., 2023). We have carefully reviewed the recent article by Pritty et al. (Prity et al., 2024) and would like to offer some comments, particularly regarding the program duration presented in Table 1. While the reference to our study in the article states a 6-week program duration (Gercek et al., 2023), our study examined the acute effects of Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) in individuals with chronic neck pain. Furthermore, in addition to Visual Analog Scale (VAS) as an outcome measure, we also assessed joint position errors using the Cervical Range of Motion (CROM) device. These misunderstandings and omissions must be taken into account, as it is important to ensure the correct flow of information and clarity about the scope of the research.