Effectiveness of Dry Needling in Chronic Neck Pain.
CompletedNot applicableNCT03844802
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This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.
Brief summary (from the registry)
Objectives: To investigate the effect of combining real or placebo dry needling with therapeutic exercise in self-reported pain, pressure pain sensitivity, neck disability, global rating of change (GROC) scale, muscle viscoelastic properties (muscle tone and stiffness) and left/right discrimination ability in adults with chronic non-specific neck pain. Design: Quantitative, experimental, longitudinal, prospective, and single blinded study. Subjects: Participants aged between 18 and 60 years, and with non specific neck pain of at least 3 months of evolution. Methods: Participants will be randomly allocated in four groups: a) isolated use of a home based therapeutic exercise (TE) program (TE Group); b) combination of the exercise program and the use of deep dry needling (DN) in neck shoulder muscles with active or latent myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) in order to elicit local twitch responses (LTR) (TE + local DN Group); c) therapeutic exercise combined with DN applied distally from the muscle areas with MTrPs and, therefore, without, eliciting LTRs (TE + distal DN Group); and d) therapeutic exercise program combined with placebo DN (TE + placebo DN Group).
Study details
- Official title
- Effectiveness of Real or Placebo Dry Needling Combined With Therapeutic Exercise in Adults With Chronic Neck Pain
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Other: Local Dry needling and exercise
- Other: Distal Dry needling and exercise
- Other: Sham dry needling and exercise
- Other: Exercise
- Sponsor
- University of Seville
- Collaborators
- Junta de Andalucia
- Start date
- 2019-03-25
- Primary completion
- 2023-07-30
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 18 Years to 60 Years
- Results posted
- No results posted in this snapshot
- Countries
- Spain
- Total sites listed
- 1
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis of non-specific mechanical neck pain. * Pain lasting for more than 3 months of duration. * Self-reported pain higher than 3 in the Numeric Pain Rating Scale. * Self-reported neck disability higher than 5 in the Neck Disability Index. Exclusion Criteria: * Absence of pain during passive neck rotation. * Higher pain intensity in neutral position than during passive neck rotation. * Absence of ipsilateral pain during passive neck rotation. * Previous history of surgery of the cervical spine or upper extremity. * Previous history of whiplash, diagnosis of fibromyalgia, or any neurological, inflammatory or rheumatological disease. * Presence of two or more positive signs indicative of neural compression (sensitivity disorders, myotomic weakness in the upper extremities, or alteration in deep tendon reflexes). * Radiological signs of root compression or spinal stenosis. * Having received physical therapy treatment in the month prior to the start of the study. * Analgesic and / or anti-inflammatory treatment in the last 72 h. * Diagnosis of psychiatric disorders with ongoing medical treatment. * Pregnancy or breastfeeding. * Pending litigation in progress. * Any contraindication to the use of dry needling.
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03844802