Optimized acupuncture treatment (acupuncture and intradermal needling) for cervical spondylosis–related neck pain: a multicenter randomized controlled trial

作者：Ling Chen, Minying Li, Li Fan, Xiaoping Zhu, Jianhua Liu, Hui Li, Zhenhua Xu, Junjun Chen, Zhaohui Liang, Zhi-Yan Liu, Lingmei Feng, Xiaoyun Chen, Qing He, Xiaokai Chen, Aihua Ou, Jiangshan He, Rui Ma, Baile Ning, Li Jiang, Sheng Li, Wenbin Fu · 发表于：Pain · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002071 · 被引用次数：44 · 研究领域：Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies、Myofascial pain diagnosis and treatment、Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation

ABSTRACT: Cervical spondylosis (CS)-related neck pain is difficult to treat because of its degenerative nature. The aim of this 9-center, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the efficacy of optimized acupuncture for CS-related neck pain. Participants who met the inclusion criteria were randomized to optimized, shallow, and sham acupuncture groups (1:1:1). The primary outcome was the change from baseline in the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire score at week 4. Participants were followed up until week 16. Of the 896 randomized participants, 857 received ≥1 intervention session; 280, 286, and 291 received optimized, shallow, and sham acupuncture, respectively. A total of 835 (93.2%) participants completed the study. At week 4, significant differences (P < 0.001) were observed in the changes in Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire scores between the optimized acupuncture group and both the shallow {7.72 (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.57-9.86)} and sham acupuncture (10.38 [95% CI, 8.25-12.52]) groups. The difference in the scores at week 16 between the optimized acupuncture group and the shallow (8.84 [95% CI, 6.34-11.34]) and sham acupuncture (10.81 [95% CI, 8.32-13.30]) groups were significant. The center effect indicated wide variability in the treatment effects (Cohen's d = 0.01-2.19). Most SF-36 scores were higher in the optimized acupuncture group than those in the other groups. These results suggest that 4-week optimized acupuncture treatme...