Pain modulation via the gate control is one of the proposed theories as the tape stimulates neuromuscular pathways via increased afferent feedback [31]. Another explanation is that the improved motion due to an increased recruitment in the motor units of the supraspinatus muscle to perform the activity due to an increased proprioceptive stimulus. Frazier et al. found significant improvements in DASH scores and pain on five patients having various shoulder problems by KT and PT at the same time [23]. On the other hand, a recent study did not show any electromyographic evidence of increased muscular activity by taping [18]. Another study showed decreased upper trapezius and increased lower trapezius electromyographic activity in people with suspected shoulder impingement with scapular taping during functional overhead tasks and decreased upper trapezius activity during shoulder abduction in the scapular plane [32]. A more recent study compared the upper and lower trapezius muscles and Clin Rheumatol (2011) 30:201–207 205 found altered activities with a higher ratio of upper trapezius to the lower trapezius activity in patients with symptomatic subacromial impingement syndrome as compared with healthy subjects. The taping induced a reduction in upper trapezius activity [33]. These findings are also emphasizing the role of muscle imbalance which should be implemented to the alternative treatment methods like KT as well as the exercises. Although there was no significant difference between two groups with respect to baseline measures (p=0.108), the rest pain scores of patients in KT group before the treatment seem to be considerably lower than the PT group. We think that this may be related with the nonnormal distribution of the data. Therefore, we believe that the use of non-parametric test is more reliable in these conditions. There are some lacking points in our study. One of them is the absence of the sham application to compare with taping. Additionally, it would be better to use taping and physical therapy as a combination and compare with the other groups as well as the sham group. The lack of randomization and sequential allocation of patients are also other factors that weaken the power of this study. Another point is the possible existence of a drop out bias which may lead to over- or underestimation of our results. The assessment of possible differences in various factors like cultural, educational, and health status between the participants and subjects who dropped out was recommended [34]. Although we could not find any differences regarding demographic findings and baseline data, this is still a questionable issue. We think that the immediate effect of KT may be considered as a very important advantage as compared with the local physical therapy modalities. This is also a favorable result which may increase the performance during exercise that is an indispensible step of the treatment process. The sudden effects may have been potentially due to KT, which reduces mechanical irritation of the involved soft tissue structures and reorients the shoulder movements through an arc of improved glenohumeral motion. Another important practical difference of two treatment options is the duration and frequency of the application. Local modalities are usually performed daily for 2–4 weeks as we preferred in our study. However, KT is performed three times within the same period and showed similar effectiveness. Therefore, we may conclude that KT may be preferred as an alternative treatment option when an immediate effect by shorter application durations is needed. In addition, potential economic consequences between the two treatment programs due to various factors such as less frequent visits and shorter duration of therapy should also be considered. Although the second week results except for the DASH scores show no difference between groups, VAS scores of the KT are similarly lower than the PT group. However, the higher variability of the data at the second week control most likely led to these insignificant results. Therefore, it would have been more informative to evaluate the DASH scores at the first week in addition to the second week and to study on higher number of patients for longer periods of time.