Dry Needling, Manual Therapy and Exercise for Neck Pain Management

Camilo Jose Cela University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Neck Pain, Posterior

Treatments: Behavioral: Therapeutic Exercise; Other: Manual Therapy; Other: Sham Dry Needling; Other: Dry Needling

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05607459

PhD-MML

Details and patient eligibility

About

Since neck pain is the fourth highest disabling condition (with an estimated point prevalence of 20%, lifetime prevalence up to 70% and high recurrence rates), dry needling targeting myofascial trigger points in neck muscles has been proposed as an effective treatment for reducing pain and disability in patients with chronic neck pain.

A recent meta-analysis reported whether dry needling could be recommended for this population. Low to moderate evidence suggests that dry needling can be effective at the short-term, but its effects on pressure pain sensitivity or cervical range of motion are limited.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• To be between 18 and 65 years old
• To have been experiencing unilateral neck pain for at least 3 months
• To have a Neck Disability Index (NDI) score >8
• To have a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score >3
• To have at least one active MTrP located in the upper trapezius or cervical multifidus muscles

Exclusion criteria

• History of whiplash injury
• Previous cervical surgery
• Cervical radiculopathy or myelopathy
• Diagnosis of fibromyalgia
• Additional analgesic treatments during the study (e.g. physiotherapy or drugs)
• Psychiatric disorders
• Any contraindication to the interventions proposed (e.g. fear of needles or anticoagulants)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Dry Needling Group

Experimental group

Description:

This group will receive dry needling, manual therapy (consisting of a manual compression over myofascial trigger points located at the upper trapezius muscle, scalene muscles and cervical multifidus) and therapeutic exercise interventions

Treatment:

Other: Dry Needling

Other: Manual Therapy

Behavioral: Therapeutic Exercise

Sham Dry Needling Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

This group will receive manual therapy (consisting of a manual compression over myofascial trigger points located at the upper trapezius muscle, scalene muscles and cervical multifidus), therapeutic exercise interventions and a previously described sham dry needling intervention.

Treatment:

Other: Sham Dry Needling

Other: Manual Therapy

Behavioral: Therapeutic Exercise