Myofasical pain syndrome or MPS for short is the pain that occurs in the body’s soft tissues. The pain is described as chronic and it can affect the fascia, which is the connective tissue that covers the muscles in the body. The pain that arises from Mysofascial pain syndrome can either be found in one single muscle or it can be found in a group. What is different about this syndrome is that sometimes, the location of the muscle is not where the pain is. The pain can be located somewhere else in the body and  is called referred pain. The actual site of the pain is called the trigger point.

The cause of Myofascial pain syndrome can arise from a muscle injury or it can also be from excessive strain on a muscle group, tendon or even the ligaments. People who have jobs that require physical activity may be likely candidates for Myofascial pain. Construction workers are always putting pressure on their backs so they have a good chance of developing this syndrome. Athletes especially baseball catchers are candidates for this as well. There are other causes as well, they are injury to the invertebral disc, general tiredness, repetitive motions, medical conditions and lack of activity or total inactivity due to maybe a cast or sling.

The symptoms of Myofascial pain usually have a certain trigger or a tender point. The pain can actually be worse when it is activated by stress or a strenuous activity. Depending on where the pain is located some people can suffer from depression, fatigue and changes in their behavior.
There are ways to diagnose Myofasical Pain Syndrome. Like mentioned before there are trigger points that can be used to identify where the pain is. There are four types of trigger points that can be used in the diagnoses.

There is the active trigger point, which is an area that is very tender, and it usually is located in the skeletal muscle and that can be associated with local or a wider region of pain. Then there is a latent trigger point that is inactive but it acts as a trigger point. Then you have a secondary trigger point that can be very irritable to the muscles and that may appear active because of a trigger point and a muscular overload in the muscle.
The last one is called the satellite Myofascial point this is also a very irritable location in the muscle that has become inactive because the muscles in the area are in the region of another trigger point.

Myofasical Pain Syndrome can be treated with physical therapy, massage therapy, trigger point injection and anti inflammatory drugs and with what they call the stretch and spray technique which is the spraying of the muscles and the trigger points with a coolant and then stretching out the muscles.

For additional information and resources on Chronic Pain, visit PainsWeb.com. The author Sam Carson is a chronic pain patient and publisher of PainsWeb.com. His website specializes in conveying targeted information about all types of Chronic Pain and helps you find associated information, patient resources and forums etc to manage your pain. Authors can submit quality original articles to PainsWeb.com and get a back link to their site.