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Dry Needling, Manual Therapy and Exercise for Neck Pain Management

NCT05607459 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 40

Last updated 2025-07-01

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

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.

Conditions

  • Neck Pain, Posterior

Interventions

OTHER

Dry Needling

Dry needling consists of a skilled intervention which uses a thin filiform needle (as those used in acupuncture) to penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying myofascial trigger points (defined as "a hyperirritable spot in skeletal muscle that is associated with a hypersensitive palpable nodule in a taut band which is painful on manual compression and can give rise to characteristic referred pain, referred tenderness, motor dysfunction and autonomic phenomena.") This intervention will be performed targeting the upper trapezius and cervical multifidus muscles

BEHAVIORAL

Therapeutic Exercise

Patients will include a supervised therapeutic exercise program in their daily life, based on strengthening exercises for neck muscles.

OTHER

Manual Therapy

Patients will receive a manual compression (30 seconds) over myofascial trigger points located at the upper trapezius muscle, scalene muscles and cervical multifidus muscle.

OTHER

Sham Dry Needling

For the sham DN intervention, a similar approach will be used, but the skin will be not pierced since the material used will be a telescopic Park's sham device. The guide tube will be pressed against the skin mark and the sham needle will be allowed to drop. The handle will be tapped briskly, but the (blunted) needle tip will not not break the skin.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

    collaborator OTHER

  • Camilo Jose Cela University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Juan Antonio Valera Calero, PhD · Camilo José Cela University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-11-01
Primary Completion
2025-03-28
Completion
2025-03-30

Countries

  • Spain

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05607459 on ClinicalTrials.gov