Overview
According to a study published in the journal BMC Medicine the reason shoulder pain keeps coming back is that the common diagnosis of shoulder pain, impingement syndrome is incorrect, therefore the wrong cause is being treated. Instead this study found that the most common cause of (chronic) long term shoulder pain is (myofascial) trigger points, which are those lumps in muscles therapists find. Trigger points cause shoulder pain by two methods: i) directly causing pain, and ii) indirectly causing pain by altering the biomechanics of the shoulder joint. Based upon these findings the way to prevent shoulder pain from coming back is to treat the trigger points.