A Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Pharmacopuncture Therapy for Chronic Neck Pain: A Pragmatic, Randomized, Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: This two-arm, parallel, pragmatic, multicenter, clinical randomized, controlled trial with a 12-week follow-up period aimed to compare the effectiveness of pharmacopuncture therapy and physical therapy strategies for chronic neck pain. Methods: Eight sessions of pharmacopuncture therapy or physical therapy were administered within 2 weeks. The primary outcome was the visual analogue scale (VAS) score for neck pain. The secondary outcomes were the scores of the Northwick Park questionnaire (NPQ), VAS score for radiating arm pain, numeric rating scale (NRS) for neck and arm bothersomeness, neck disability index (NDI), patient global impression of change (PGIC), 12-item short form health survey (SF-12), and EuroQoL 5-dimension 5-level (EQ-5D-5L) instrument. The protocol was registered with Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04035018) and CRIS (KCT0004243). Results: We randomly allocated 101 participants with chronic neck pain to the pharmacopuncture therapy (n = 50) or physical therapy group (n = 51). At the primary endpoint (week 5) the pharmacopuncture therapy group showed significantly superior effects regarding VAS score for neck pain and arm bothersomeness, NRS for neck pain, NDI, NPQ, and PGIC compared with the physical therapy group. These effects were sustained up to 12 weeks after follow-up. Conclusion: Compared with physical therapy, pharmacopuncture therapy had superior effects on the pain and functional recovery of patients with chronic neck pain.

Effectiveness and Safety of Pharmacopuncture Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Study Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial

“…This clinical trial will explore the effect and safety of pharmacopuncture on chronic LBP. The evidence for the effect size in this study is based on that by Park et al (2021) [13]. The effect size for the evaluation variables (VAS and numerical rating scale for chronic neck pain) is between 0.16 and 0.51.…”

Knowledge Mapping of International Research on Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The high citation rate of SPINE indicates that CP related to spine is the focus of acupuncture for CP. 69,[73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87] From the perspective of research areas, electroacupuncture, low back pain, systematic review, randomized controlled trial, meta analysis are the main research focuses, which shows that researchers are very interested in verification of the effectiveness on acupuncture for CP. Trials to prove the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of pain is and will be the focuses of this research field.…”

The Menstrual Cycle Phase and Effect of Aromatherapy on Orthodontic Debonding Pain

“…On the other hand, there are also studies reporting that the VAS has some practical limitations in clinical practice and that many patients have difficulty in assessing the distance accurately. 36 When assessing pain and disability, not only physical characteristics such as frequency, duration and severity of pain should not be considered, but also cognitive and emotional components should be considered. 18,19 In this context, the PCS has been a very useful scale to assess the link between personal pain perception and actual pain during debonding.…”