Acupuncture for Neck Pain – Review of Recent Randomised Controlled Trials

Abstract

Summary A systematic review (White and Ernst) including 14 acupuncture trials did not find available evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture in neck pain in 1999. Since the publication of this review nine randomised controlled trials have been published. Three trials used sham laser acupuncture as control, three trials used needle acupuncture at non-classical sites as control, two trials compared acupuncture to standard treatment (physiotherapy, medication) and one trial compared auricular acupuncture with electrical stimulation to conventional manual auricular acupuncture. Detailed analyses of trials show a diversity of study designs regarding inclusion criteria, mode of acupuncture, control groups and outcome measures. The majority of acupuncture trials have included only a limited number of patients, a sample size calculation is rarely performed. Most trials show clinically relevant effects of acupuncture, but results of trials comparing acupuncture at classical sites according to traditional Chinese acupuncture to acupuncture at other sites gave contradictory results. In summary, recent results of trials in chronic neck pain may shift towards to more evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment for chronic neck pain. The evidence of superiority of acupuncture at classical points compared to acupuncture at non-classical points seems to be modest.