Use of ThermaCare Heat Wraps and Ibuprofen as an Adjunct to Physical Therapy for Neck Pain

Objective- To see if the use of heat at home between physical therapy sessions results in better therapy outcomes in people with acute neck pain. Setting: Physical Therapy outpatient rehabilitation center Participants: 90 people with acute nonspecific neck pain broken into 4 groups. Intervention: All subjects will undergo 45 minutes of therapy 2 times per week for 2 weeks. All subjects will accomplish 1 hour of therapeutic exercise at home on days when there is no therapy. Thirty of the subjects will use ThermaCare neck wraps before home exercise, 30 used Ibuprofen plus ThermaCare neck wraps before home exercise, 15 will use a sham heat wrap and an Ibuprofen placebo each day (1200 mg / day) and the last 15 will be controls with conventional physical therapy.