Short-Term Effects of Dry Needling with a Standard Exercise Program on Pain and Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Mechanical Neck Pain

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to determine the short-term effects of dry needling (DN) combined with a standard exercise program on pain and quality of life in patients with chronic mechanical neck pain (CMNP). Methods: Thirty-one patients with CMNP were randomly allocated to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received DN and underwent a standard exercise program (one DN session and six exercise sessions) for two weeks, whereas the control group underwent the same exercise program alone for two weeks. The participants’ scores in the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), Neck Disability Index (NDI), Short Form-36 Quality of Life Scale (SF-36 QOLS), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) before and after the intervention were assessed. Results: The control and experimental groups’ post-test NDI, NPRS, SF-36 QOLS, and BDI scores significantly differed from their baseline scores (p ≤ 0.05). The between-group comparison of the post-test scores using Wilcoxon rank-sum test revealed no significant differences between the NDI, NPRS, BDI, and SF-36 QOLS scores of both groups (p ≥ 0.05). Conclusions: One session of trigger point DN (TrP-DN) with exercise and exercise alone showed the same pain and quality-of-life outcomes after a two-week intervention. We did not recognise TrP-DN as an efficient intervention, not because we obtained evidence that it is ineffective, but because there were inadequate high-quality studies on the subject and unavailable data on the minimum quantity of injections required for better DN outcomes in CMNP patients.

Effect of dry needling on pain and central sensitization in women with chronic pelvic pain: A randomized parallel-group controlled clinical trial

“…In this study, the results of the SF-36 showed that intervention had no significant effect on improvement of patient's quality of life, which agrees with the results of some previous studies. In the study of Gerber et al [ 119 ], and Almushahhim et al [ 120 ], the effects of DN on the treatment of neck pain were investigated. The results of these two studies did not show a significant difference for the SF-36 scores of the two groups.…”