Dry Needling vs Dry Needling With ES in Patients With Neck/Shoulder Pain

March 21, 2019 updated by: Kindyle Brennan

Rate and Maintenance of Improvement in Myofascial Pain: Dry Needling Alone vs Dry Needling With Intramuscular Electrical Stimulation

First, we aim to determine if there is a difference in the rate of improvement, as measured by the Neck Disability Index (NDI) and Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), across a 6 week treatment period between those treated with DN only and those treated with DN and intramuscular electrical stimulation (IES) in subjects with upper trapezius active trigger points (aTrPs). Secondly, we want to determine if improvements in clinical outcomes (NDI and NPRS) of patients with upper trapezius active trigger points (aTrPs) treated with dry needling (DN) alone or dry needling with intramuscular electrical stimulation (DN/IES) are maintained 6 weeks post treatment without further intervention.

Research Questions:

  1. Is there a difference in the rate of improvement in NDI and NPRS across a 6 week treatment period in subjects with upper trapezius active trigger points (aTrPs) between those treated with DN only and those treated with DN and intramuscular electrical stimulation (IES)?
  2. Are improvements in clinical outcomes (NDI and NPRS) of patients with upper trapezius active trigger points (aTrPs) treated with dry needling (DN) maintained 6 weeks post treatment without further intervention? Tertiary exploration: If improvement is maintained, is there a difference in outcome maintenance between groups? Did improvement increase between 6 and 12 weeks?

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

45

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Texas
      • Belton, Texas, United States, 76513
        • University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 60 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

18-59 years old have an active email account have at least one palpable active trigger point (TrP) (located in one or both upper trapezius) English speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

current or previous history of cancer active infection neurologic deficit cognitive deficit pregnancy connective tissue disease and/or autoimmune disorder smoke tobacco received previous DN treatments within 6 weeks of the study, experienced unilateral or bilateral neck/shoulder pain continuously for 3 months or longer

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Dry Needling (DN)

Subjects will receive dry needling treatment, once a week, for 6 weeks.

Outcomes will be measured at baseline (week 0), 3 weeks after initiation of study (week 3), 6 weeks after initiation of study (week 6), and 6 weeks after last treatment (week 12).

One to three filament needles (similar to an acupuncture needle) with no medication will be inserted into the tender area of my muscle. The needles will be repositioned a few times to make the muscle twitch. After several twitches occur, the researcher will leave the needles as they are, and the subject will sit in a chair without moving my arms or head, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes the needles are removed and discarded.
Active Comparator: Dry Needling with Intramuscular electrical stimulation (DNES)

Subjects will receive dry needling treatment with electrical stimulation, once a week, for 6 weeks.

Outcomes will be measured at baseline (week 0), 3 weeks after initiation of study (week 3), 6 weeks after initiation of study (week 6), and 6 weeks after last treatment (week 12).

One to three filament needles (similar to an acupuncture needle) with no medication will be inserted into the tender area of the muscle. The needles will be repositioned a few times to make the muscle twitch. After several twitches occur, the researcher will leave the needles as they are, and attach alligator clips to the needles to provide electrical stimulus for 10 minutes while the subject sits in a chair without moving arms or head. After 10 minutes, the electrical stimulus will be turned off and detached, and the needles removed and discarded.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Rate of improvement in numerical pain rating scale between groups
Time Frame: 6 weeks
Between group difference in within group pain changes
6 weeks
Rate of improvement in Neck Disability Index between groups
Time Frame: 6 weeks
Between group difference of within group disability changes
6 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Maintenance of pain improvement in both groups
Time Frame: week 6 compared to week 12 data
Difference between pain scores in both groups between the 6th week of weekly treatment and those 6 weeks after cessation of treatment.
week 6 compared to week 12 data
Maintenance of disability improvement in both groups
Time Frame: week 6 compared to week 12 data
Difference between neck disability scores in both groups between the 6th week of weekly treatment and those 6 weeks after cessation of treatment.
week 6 compared to week 12 data

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kindyle L. Brennan, PHD,PT, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 16, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 16, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 16, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

August 20, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 21, 2019

Last Verified

March 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • DNvDN-ES

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Neck Pain

Clinical Trials on Dry needling (DN)

3
Subscribe