Contralateral Acupuncture in the Treatment of Chronic Shoulder Pain

Peking University

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 2

Conditions: Shoulder Pain

Treatments: Other: Control; Procedure: Acupuncture

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01733914

2007CB512501

Details and patient eligibility

About

According to traditional Chinese medical theories, a variety of acupuncture formulas can treat diseases such as pain. For example, stimulating acupoints either local or distal to the pain site has been proposed under some conditions. We hypothesize that stimulating acupoints contralateral to the pain site can successfully treat chronic shoulder pain.

Enrollment: 80 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 25 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Uni-lateral shoulder pain for 6 weeks to 2 years
• VAS score ≤ 50
• 25-65 years of age
• Positive Neer's or Hawkins' signs
• Accept the informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Shoulder pain of neurological origins
• Shoulder pain of neck origins
• Systematic arthritis
• Wrist problems
• Previous shoulder, arm, neck or chest fractures or surgeries
• Mental diseases
• Pregnancy
• Inability to work for more than 3 months before treatment
• Diabetes
• Coagulative dysfunction
• Corticosterone or physicotherapy experience on the affected shoulder in the last 6 months
• Failure to accept the informed consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind

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80 participants in 2 patient groups

Acupuncture

Experimental group

Description:

Experimental group

Treatment:

Procedure: Acupuncture

Waiting list

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Control group

Treatment:

Other: Control