Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

TUESDAY, Sept. 3, 2024 -- Acupuncture interventions using high- or low-sensitivity acupoints (HSA and LSA) are more effective for reducing chronic neck pain (CNP) than sham acupuncture (SA) or wait-list (WL) control, according to a study published online Sept. 3 in the Annals of Internal Medicine . Ling Zhao, Ph.D., from the Acupuncture and Tuina School at Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China, and colleagues examined the efficacy and safety of pressure-pain, sensory-based individualized acupuncture for relieving pain in a 24-week multicenter, randomized controlled trial conducted at four clinical centers in China. The study included 716 participants with CNP who were randomly assigned to a WL group or HSA, LSA, or SA acupuncture groups. Overall, 683 participants were included in the modified intention-to-treat population. The researchers found that for HSA, LSA, SA, and WL, the mean baseline visual analog scale scores were 50.36, 50.10, 49.24, and 49.16, respectively. The mean baseline to week 4 changes were −12.16, −10.19, −6.11, and −2.24 in the HSA, LSA, SA, and WL groups, respectively. At 24-week follow-up, the intervention effects persisted. "In contrast to SA and a WL control, individualized acupuncture was more effective in reducing pain for a minimum of 24 weeks. The clinical importance of this improvement is unclear," the authors write. "Our results suggest that the selection of pressure-pain, sensory-based objective acupoints could be considered as a treatment of CNP."