Effectiveness of Dry Needling in Patients With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain

May 1, 2025 updated by: Iran University of Medical Sciences

Effectiveness of Dry Needling on Pain, Functional Disability, Postural Control and Pain Pressure Threshold in Patients With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Double-Blind Randomised Controlled Trial

Low back pain is a major health problem that affects psychosocial, economical, functional and physical aspects of the patients' life. The aim of this study will be to investigate the effectiveness of dry needling on pain, functional disability, postural control and pain pressure threshold in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain using a randomized controlled trial design.

Patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain will be randomly divided into two groups: Experimental group (dry needling and routine physical therapy) and control group (sham dry needling and routine physical therapy). Primary outcomes will be pain intensity and functional disability. Postural control and pain pressure threshold will be considered as secondary outcomes.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Low back pain is a major health problem that affects psychosocial, economical, functional and physical aspects of the patients' life. Since patients with chronic low back pain have impaired postural control and this impairment can cause chronicity and recurrence of low back pain, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions on postural control in patients with low back pain. Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of dry needling on pain, functional disability and pain sensitivity in patients with low back pain. The effectiveness of dry needling on postural control is not fully known.

The aim of this study will be to investigate the effectiveness of dry needling on pain, functional disability, postural control and pain pressure threshold in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain.

This study will be a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Forty patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain will be randomly divided into two groups: Experimental group (dry needling and routine physical therapy) and control group (sham dry needling and routine physical therapy). Primary outcomes will be pain intensity and functional disability. Postural control and pain pressure threshold will be considered as secondary outcomes. Outcomes will be assessed before and one week after the intervention.

All of the participants will be identified and recruited by posters and word-of-mouth from the university and the surrounding local communities. Eligible participants will be explained about the purpose and the examination involved in this investigation, and all eligible participants will sign a written informed consent before entering the study.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

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 Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Iran, Islamic Republic of
    • Tehran Province
      • Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran, Islamic Republic of, 1545913487
        • Recruiting
        • Physical therapy clinic at rehabilitation center of Iran university of medical sciences
        • Contact:

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 45 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients age between 18 to 45 years.
  • Moderate pain at rest (between 30 and 60 in NPRS).
  • Patients with trigger points in the lumbar multifidus muscle.
  • Patients have the ability to speak and read Persian.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Currently taking anticoagulant medications
  • Specific low back pain (Neurogenic low back pain, Spinal stenosis, cauda equina syndrome, spondylolisthesis, and Presence of any signs or symptoms of non-musculoskeletal pathology e.g. cancer, infection and fracture in low back and lower extremities based on paraclinical findings)
  • Prior surgery to the lumbosacral spine
  • Inability to obtain prone lying
  • Severe malalignments in the cervical, thoracic, lumbar or pelvic region and the lower limbs
  • History of uncorrected vision impairment, vestibular, hearing or cognitive impairments
  • Leg length discrepancy which disturbs balance
  • Systemic diseases, such as diabetes, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative diseases and other rheumatoid diseases
  • Needle phobia
  • Sacroiliac pain as identified with six clinical tests: compression, distraction, sacral thrust, thigh thrust, Gaenslen's and FABER's

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: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental group
The experimental group will comprise 20 participants with chronic non-specific low back pain. The treatment will include dry needling of the lumbar multifidus muscle and routine physical therapy. The needles will be inserted to obtain local twitch response, and this process will continue until no more local twitch response occurs in each session. Then the needles will be left in place for 20 minutes. Routine physical therapy will include low level laser therapy and motor control training. The treatment will last 3 weeks, 6 sessions, twice a week.
Other: dry needling
The patients will be placed in a prone position with a pillow under their belly to accommodate lumbar lordosis. Two lengths of sterile, disposable, 0.30 mm x 75 mm and 0.30 mm x 50 mm solid filament needle (Tony, China) will be used in this study. The length of the needle for each participant will be selected based on the size of the participant. The needles will be inserted into the lumbar multifidus muscle, 1.5 - 2 cm lateral to the spinous process of two or three painful segments, perpendicular to lamina (after piercing the skin, needles are directed inferomedially). The needles will be inserted to obtain local twitch response, and this process will continue until no more local twitch response occurs in each session. Then the needles will be left in place for 20 minutes.
Placebo Comparator: Control group
The control group will comprise 20 participants with chronic non-specific low back pain. The treatment will include "sham" dry needling of the lumbar multifidus muscle and routine physical therapy. The sham dry needling method consists of the insertion of the needles subcutaneously and no local twitch response will be obtained. The needles will be left in the place for 20 minutes. Routine physical therapy will include low level laser therapy and motor control training. The treatment will last 3 weeks, 6 sessions, twice a week.
Other: sham (placebo) dry needling
The sham dry needling method includes the insertion of the needles subcutaneously and no local twitch response will be obtained. The needles will be left in the place for 20 minutes.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pain level
Time Frame: before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention
The 0-100 Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) will be used to evaluate changing in level of pain from the baseline to one week after the intervention. Zero indicates no pain and 100 indicates maximum pain that the patient experiences. The NPRS has the responsiveness to measure the level of pain in people with low back pain.
before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention
Functional disability
Time Frame: before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention
The Persian version of The Oswestry Disability Index will be used to evaluate changing in functional disability from the baseline to one week after intervention. This questionnaire includes 10 activities of daily living and a total score of 100. A score below 25 indicates the lowest level of disability, 25 to 50 moderate disability, 50 to 75 severe disability, and 75 to 100 acute disability. The validity and the reliability of the Persian version of this questionnaire has been shown in the previous studies.
before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pain Pressure Threshold
Time Frame: before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention
The pressure algometer will be used to evaluate the Pain Pressure Threshold (PPT). The patients will be placed in a prone position with a pillow under their belly to accommodate lumbar lordosis and the algometer will be applied perpendicular to the muscle belly of the lumbar multifidus, approximately 1.5 cm lateral to the spinous process of the painful segments. The patients will be asked to signal verbally after perception of force change from pressure to pain. The PPT at each location will be taken three times and the mean of three repetitions will be used for statistical analysis. The validity and reliability of the pressure algometer has been shown in previous studies.
before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention
Postural control
Time Frame: before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention
The force platform (Germany, Kistler, 9260AA6) will be used to evaluate postural control from the baseline to one week after intervention. Postural control will be evaluated in four different trials in double-leg stance position: 1-Eyes open on a firm surface. 2-Eyes closed on a firm surface. 3-Eyes open on a foam surface. 4-Eyes closed on a foam surface. The duration of each trial will be 90 s, three times repetition, with one minute rest interval between each trial. The postural control variables in this investigation will be COP excursion in the anteroposterior and mediolateral direction, COP amplitude standard deviation (dispersion) in the anteroposterior and mediolateral direction, COP velocity standard deviation in the anteroposterior and mediolateral direction, mean velocity of COP, COP total area of excursion, COP plane phase in the anteroposterior and mediolateral direction, and COP total plane phase.
before intervention (baseline) and one week after intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Iran University of Medical Sciences

Investigators

  • Study Director: Mohammadreza Pourahmadi, PhD, Rehabilitation Research Center, Department of Physical Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

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.

General Publications

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)

July 25, 2022

Primary Completion (Estimated)

July 30, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 8, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 18, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

October 29, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 2, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 1, 2025

Last Verified

May 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IR.IUMS.REC.1400.476

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The data sets of this study will be available on a reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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.

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