Neck Pain – Research
Acupuncture plus usual medical care is cost-effective for neck pain and its associated disorders (NAD) (Van der Velde 2015 – SR of 6 studies)(1);
Acupuncture superior to sham acupuncture or inactive treatment (at completion of treatment and short-term follow-up) for pain relief; Moderate quality evidence (Trinh 2016 – Cochrane update with 27 RCTS)(2);
Limited evidence of effectiveness; low quality evidence (Moon 2014 – 6 RCTs on whiplash associated disorder [WAD])(3).
References
1. van der Velde G, Yu H, Paulden M, Cote P, Varatharajan S, Shearer HM, et al. Which interventions are cost effective for the management of whiplash-associated and neck pain-associated disorders? A systematic review of the health economic literature by the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration. Spine J. 2015 Nov 26.
2. Trinh K, Graham N, Irnich D, Cameron ID, Forget M. Acupuncture for neck disorders. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016(5):Cd004870.
3. Moon TW, Posadzki P, Choi TY, Park TY, Kim HJ, Lee MS, et al. Acupuncture for treating whiplash associated disorder: a systematic review of randomised clinical trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2014;2014:870271.