The Effect of Traditional Cupping on Pain and Mechanical Thresholds in Patients with Chronic Nonspecific Neck Pain: A Randomised Controlled Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction. Cupping has been used since antiquity in the treatment of pain conditions. In this pilot study, we investigated the effect of traditional cupping therapy on chronic nonspecific neck pain (CNP) and mechanical sensory thresholds. Methods. Fifty CNP patients were randomly assigned to treatment (TG, n = 25) or waiting list control group (WL, n = 25). TG received a single cupping treatment. Pain at rest (PR), pain related to movement (PM), quality of life (SF-36), Neck Disability Index (NDI), mechanical detection (MDT), vibration detection (MDT), and pressure pain thresholds (PPT) were measured before and three days after a single cupping treatment. Patients also kept a pain and medication diary (PaDi, MeDi) during the study. Results. Baseline characteristics were similar in the two groups. After cupping TG reported significantly less pain (PR: −17.9 mm VAS, 95%CI −29.2 to −6.6; PM: −19.7, 95%CI −32.2 to −7.2; PaDi: −1.5 points on NRS, 95%CI −2.5 to −0.4; all P < 0.05) and higher quality of life than WL (SF-36, Physical Functioning: 7.5, 95%CI 1.4 to 13.5; Bodily Pain: 14.9, 95%CI 4.4 to 25.4; Physical Component Score: 5.0, 95%CI 1.4 to 8.5; all P < 0.05). No significant effect was found for NDI, MDT, or VDT, but TG showed significantly higher PPT at pain-areas than WL (in lg(kPa); pain-maximum: 0.088, 95%CI 0.029 to 0.148, pain-adjacent: 0.118, 95%CI 0.038 to 0.199; both P < 0.01). Conclusion. A single application of traditional cupping might be an effective treatment for improving pain, quality of life, and hyperalgesia in CNP.

Pulsatile dry cupping in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee – a randomized controlled exploratory trial

“…A trial at the University of Essen studied the effect of dry traditional as well as pulsatile dry cupping in chronic neck pain. Statistically significant and clinically relevant effects of cupping compared to waiting-list control were found after 5 sessions of dry cupping with both methods [10,11], but also an effect of traditional cupping on pain and quality of life already after one cupping session has been observed in this trial [12]. …”

“…However, recent clinical studies have reported positive results of cupping in patients with musculoskeletal diseases e.g. lower back pain [6], carpal tunnel syndrome [7], brachialgia paresthetica nocturna [8], cancer pain [9] and chronic neck pain [10-12]. In China Cupping is widely used and two systematic reviews were recently published about the results [13,14].…”

Cupping for Treating Neck Pain in Video Display Terminal (VDT) Users: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

“…We allowed freedom for the selection of points and stimulation methods (wet or dry cupping) to reflect the real-world clinical situation. As it is a very difficult to separate individual factors affecting the specific effects of cupping, most clinical research does not adopt strict standardized treatment guidelines for the cupping procedure, including the size of cups, applied areas, volume of drained air, and retention time of cups 15,30,31,37) . To resolve this problem, two kinds of efforts should be made in the future.…”

Therapeutic Effectiveness of Hijama in Sciatica Pain

“…In older days, cups made of bamboo, bone, horn, clay or metal were in use [1]. Many studies have been done to evaluate the efficacy of cupping therapy or hijama in various disorders such as low back pain [2], migraine headache [3], neck pain [4], results show that Hijama has been effective in reducing severity of symptoms without any serious adverse effects.…”