ArticleTrials2021
Efficacy and central mechanism of acupuncture treatment in patients with neck pain: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Article in Trials, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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
2 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predicting acupuncture efficacy for neck pain based on functional connectivity features: a machine learning study.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- Efficacy and Central Mechanism of Acupuncture Treatment for Subacute Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Clinical Neuroimaging Protocol.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAcupuncture is effective for reducing the symptoms of neck pain (NP). However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully elucidated. Based on evaluating the efficacy of two acupuncture prescriptions for treating NP, this study aims to investigate the potential central mechanism of acupuncture treatment for NP by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
methodsThis is a randomized controlled trial; 86 patients will be randomly assigned into two acupuncture treatment groups at a ratio of 1:1. The whole study period includes 2 weeks baseline, 2 weeks treatments, and 12 weeks follow-up (4 and 12 weeks after treatment). The pain severity, the neck disability index, the cervical range of motion, and the pressure pain threshold, etc., will be used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of two acupuncture prescriptions for NP treatment. The MRI scans will be performed to detect cerebral activity changes of 20 patients in each group. The clinical data and MRI data will be analyzed, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient will be used to evaluate the association between changes of cerebral activity features and improvement of clinical symptoms. DISCUSSION: The results will provide further evidence for the clinical application of acupuncture in the treatment of NP.
trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000040930 . Registered on 16 December 2020.
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Registered trials
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