A deception study to examine the true effects of kenesio tape on isokinetic functions : a pilot study

![CDATA[Background: Kinesio tape (KT) is a common therapeutic intervention for sportsmen. There are considerable amount of evidence of KT in many clinical applications, including muscle performance facilitation. However, these clinical effects can be accounted by placebo effects only. A true-placebo KT condition is hindered by the low feasibility to effectively induce temporary tactile sensation blockage in human skin. Deception in healthcare research is a well-established method to eliminate the placebo effects of an intervention, if it induces no extra risk to the participants. Therefore, we used a deception design to examine the true effects of KT on the isokinetic functions in a group of laypeople who are novice about KT. Methods: Fourteen healthy participants (six men) who were novice about KT were recruited. A screening questionnaire was used to exclude participants who potentially acquainted the application of KT. All participants attended three isokinetic knee testing sessions with each at least seven days apart. Maximal concentric knee extension was measured at two angular velocities (60 and 180/s) for ten repetitions in a randomized order. The participants were blindfolded during the setup of isokinetic muscle evaluation and they were told that a series of adhesive muscle sensors might be applied on their thigh. Indeed we applied KT in different sessions in a randomized order. The conditions were “true KT condition”, “sham KT condition”, and “untapped condition”. In the true KT condition, we applied KT, from the direction of origin to insertion with 35% of its maximal length tension, overlying the vastus medialis and rectus femoris of the dominant leg. In the sham KT condition, the procedure was identical with the treatment condition except we applied no additional tension on the tape. In the untapped condition, participants received no taping. Normalized peak torque (NPT), time to peak torque (TPT), and normalized total work done (TWD) were compared between conditions using one-way ANOVA at different angular velocities. Results: Upon the completion of the study, all the participants were confirmed that they were ignorant about KT and they were deceived throughout the experiment. No significant difference was found in NPT, TPT, and TWD between three taping conditions at slow (p ranged from 0.779 to 0.939) and fast contraction speed (p ranged from 0.711 to 0.85). Discussion & Conclusion: These results demonstrated that, after elimination of placebo effects, KT did not facilitate muscle performance, in terms of generating greater peak torque, inducing earlier onset of peak torque, or yielding higher total work done. These findings indicated that previously reported muscle facilitatory effects of KT may be resulted of placebo effects only.]]