Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society
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Meta Analysis
Identifying patients with chronic pain who respond to acupuncture: results from an individual patient data meta-analysis.
In a recent individual patient data meta-analysis, acupuncture was found to be superior to sham and non-sham controls in patients with chronic pain. It has been suggested that a subgroup of patients has an exceptional response to acupuncture. We hypothesized the presence of exceptional acupuncture responders would lead to a different distribution of pain scores in acupuncture versus control groups, with the former being skewed to the right. ⋯ We did not find evidence to support the notion that there are exceptional acupuncture responders. The challenge remains to identify features of chronic pain patients that can be used to distinguish those that have a good response to acupuncture treatment.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of pain neuroscience education and dry needling for the management of patients with chronic myofascial neck pain: a randomized clinical trial.
The aim of this study was to observe the medium-term effects on pain, disability, and psychological factors of a combination of myofascial trigger point (MTrP) dry needling (DN) with pain neuroscience education (PNE) versus DN alone versus control care as usual (CUC) in patients with chronic neck pain. ⋯ DN alone was more effective at reducing chronic non-specific neck pain and disability than CUC at 3-month follow-up. However, the inclusion of PNE combined with DN resulted in greater improvements in kinesiophobia, pain anxiety, and pain-related beliefs.