Trial reportAnnals of family medicine
Five-week outcomes from a dosing trial of therapeutic massage for chronic neck pain.
Trial report in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Visual analysis of research hotspots and trends of external therapies in traditional Chinese medicine for chronic pain.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Massage for neck pain.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Management of neck pain and associated disorders: A clinical practice guideline from the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2016Guideline
- Model structure for protocol adherence utilizing a manualized therapeutic massage intervention.Journal of complementary & integrative medicine · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Randomized clinical trial assessing whether additional massage treatments for chronic neck pain improve 12- and 26-week outcomes.The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society · 2015Trial
- Trial
- Efficacy of a wearable 660 nm red light therapy device in alleviating neck pain and enhancing neck function.Lasers in medical science · 2025Article
- What is Effective in Massage Therapy? Well, "It Depends…": a Qualitative Study of Experienced Orthopaedic Massage Therapists.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2024Article
- Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Assessment of the Clinical Efficacy of the Combination of Acupressure and "Three Methods of Neck Movement (TCM)" Therapy in the Treatment of Cervical Spondylosis: A Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Therapist-Delivered Versus Care Ally-Assisted Massage for Veterans With Chronic Neck Pain: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2022Article
- Integrating Massage Therapy Into the Health Care of Female Veterans.Federal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS · 2022Article
- Effect of Psycho-Regulatory Massage Therapy on Pain and Depression in Women with Chronic and/or Somatoform Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- Effect of physical stimulation (gingival massage) on age-related changes in gingival microcirculation.PloS one · 2020Article
- Article
- Commentary on Operationalizing Partnership Between a Traditional Research Institution and a Massage School.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2018Article
- Massage Therapy for Psychiatric Disorders.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2018Article
- Clinical Evidence of Chinese Massage Therapy (Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2017Review
- Epigenetic Mechanisms of Integrative Medicine.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2017Review
- Evidence-Based Evaluation of Complementary Health Approaches for Pain Management in the United States.Mayo Clinic proceedings · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThis trial was designed to evaluate the optimal dose of massage for individuals with chronic neck pain.
methodsWe recruited 228 individuals with chronic nonspecific neck pain from an integrated health care system and the general population, and randomized them to 5 groups receiving various doses of massage (a 4-week course consisting of 30-minute visits 2 or 3 times weekly or 60-minute visits 1, 2, or 3 times weekly) or to a single control group (a 4-week period on a wait list). We assessed neck-related dysfunction with the Neck Disability Index (range, 0-50 points) and pain intensity with a numerical rating scale (range, 0-10 points) at baseline and 5 weeks. We used log-linear regression to assess the likelihood of clinically meaningful improvement in neck-related dysfunction (≥5 points on Neck Disability Index) or pain intensity (≥30% improvement) by treatment group.
resultsAfter adjustment for baseline age, outcome measures, and imbalanced covariates, 30-minute treatments were not significantly better than the wait list control condition in terms of achieving a clinically meaningful improvement in neck dysfunction or pain, regardless of the frequency of treatments. In contrast, 60-minute treatments 2 and 3 times weekly significantly increased the likelihood of such improvement compared with the control condition in terms of both neck dysfunction (relative risk = 3.41 and 4.98, P = .04 and .005, respectively) and pain intensity (relative risk = 2.30 and 2.73; P = .007 and .001, respectively).
conclusionsAfter 4 weeks of treatment, we found multiple 60-minute massages per week more effective than fewer or shorter sessions for individuals with chronic neck pain. Clinicians recommending massage and researchers studying this therapy should ensure that patients receive a likely effective dose of treatment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.