Latent myofascial trigger point injection improves symptoms in functional gastrointestinal disorders

Table 3 Significantly improved treatment response and reduced medication dependency, mean ± SD

Indicators	Injection group	Medication group	P value
GIQLI scores
Baseline	45.6 ± 6.2	45.2 ± 6.1	0.957
4 weeks post-treatment	68.5 ± 6.1	57.3 ± 5.5	< 0.001
Treatment effectiveness
Clinical effectiveness rate (%)	83.3	56.7	< 0.001
Emergency medication usage
4 weeks post-treatment (frequency)	1.2 ± 0.5	3.7 ± 1.2	< 0.001
Symptom assessment scores1
Abdominal pain score	2.1 ± 0.8	3.4 ± 1.1	< 0.001
Bloating severity score	1.8 ± 0.6	2.9 ± 0.9	0.002
Nausea frequency (episodes/week)	1.5 ± 0.4	2.8 ± 0.7	0.003
Patient satisfaction and quality metrics
Patient satisfaction score (0-10)	8.2 ± 1.1	6.5 ± 1.3	< 0.001
Treatment compliance rate (%)	92.5	85.3	0.018
Return to daily activities (days)	2.3 ± 0.8	4.1 ± 1.2	< 0.001

¹Symptom scores are assessed on a 0-10 scale where lower scores indicate improvement.

GIQLI: Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index.