SynthesisPain research & management2023
Effectiveness of Dry Needling in Improving Pain and Function in Comparison with Other Techniques in Patients with Chronic Neck Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Pain research & management, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06459804 (Effects of Electro Dry Needling Versus Dry Needling on Pain, Muscle Strength, and Range of Motion in Patients With Levator Scapulae Syndrome), which is not on this map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Effects of Electro Dry Needling Versus Dry Needling on Pain, Muscle Strength, and Range of Motion in Patients With Levator Scapulae Syndrome
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Deep Versus Superficial Dry Needling for Neck Pain: A Systematic Review of Randomised Clinical Trials.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Comparative effects of low-level laser acupuncture and dry needling on clinical and functional outcomes in patients with chronic cervical myofascial pain syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.Lasers in medical science · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Efficacy of electroacupuncture for cervical spondylosis-related pain in patients with generalized anxiety disorder.World journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Dry needling for mechanical neck pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Surgical neurology international · 2025Review
- Electromyographic Activity of Cervical Muscles in Patients with Neck Pain and Changes After Dry Needling: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the short-, mid-, and long-term effectiveness of dry needling in improving pain and functional capacity of patients with chronic neck pain. Search strategy was performed on PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PEDro, and Cochrane Library Plus biomedical databases. The risk of bias was assessed using the RoB2 tool. Randomised controlled clinical trials in which at least 1 of the groups received dry needling were included. 662 studies were found; 14 clinical trials were selected for qualitative analysis and 13 for quantitative analysis. The quality of most of the studies included was "high." All the studies reported improvements in cervical pain and/or disability, regardless of the protocol followed and the muscles targeted. No serious adverse effects were reported. Dry needling showed to be more effective when compared with other therapies in both women and men, without differences by sex. When the analysis was carried out by age, patients over 40 years old benefitted more than those below 40 years old. Our meta-analysis supports the use of dry needling to improve pain and functional capacity in patients with chronic neck pain at short- and mid-term intervals.
Indexed as
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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.