Recently adopted into western manual medicine, Dry Needling (DN) follows the same practical procedures of traditional Chinese acupuncture, yet diverge on the objective. Rather than balancing energy or “qi” throughout meridians (channels), DN targets muscular trigger points, modulates & decreases the perception of pain & treats soft tissue (Cagnie et al. 2013).
However, there is no one “gold standard” theory that proves the exact underlying mechanism of DN (Cagnie et al. 2013). Most theories revolve around the needles causing a neurological modulation effect to pain pathways via sensory receptors and nociceptors, causing an alteration to pain perception (Melzack, 1996), along with other local mechanisms that can impact pain such as the release of inflammatory markers (Kidd & Urban, 2001), increased blood flow (Dray, 1995), and the release of endogenous compounds (Patel, 2010) of which all can have a analgesic effect.
What does the research say?
Well, a double-blind, placebo controlled study from 2013 consisting of 39 patients found a significant decrease in pain following “Dry Needling” compared to placebo (Tekin et al. 2013). With multiple other studies showing improvements with pain, function & ROM when combining “Dry Needling” with other therapies (Núñez-Cortés et al. 2017 & Liu L et al. 2018) and Gonzalez-Perez et al. (2015) finding better long term pain outcomes when comparing “Dry Needling” with paracetamol in participants with TMJ.
There are still some studies that show little or weak evidence in the support of “Dry Needling” when assessing pain and functional outcomes (Eric Gattie et al. 2017 & Venere and Ridgeway, 2016), with many researchers and practitioners alike agreeing that we need more high quality randomised, controlled, crossover studies in this field before we land on any solid conclusions.
Key takeaways:
- There is moderate evidence supporting the use of Dry Needling for musculoskeletal pain
- However, it is best applied in conjunction with other intervention (exercise, manipulation, IASTM or massage)
- Scared of needles? A acupuncture fine needle is roughly 10x smaller than a medical injection needle
Peace ✌🏼
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