Acupuncture is a technique derived from traditional Chinese medicine that uses thin needles inserted in the body to stimulate areas believed to regulate the proper circulation of restorative energy. Current findings are split on the effectiveness of acupuncture as a means of treating pain throughout the body, including pain located in the neck.
The Facts
Neck pain is one of the most common reasons people seek out acupuncture treatments, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine reports. Potential causes for this pain include strain in your cervical, or neck, muscles; degenerative changes in your cervical spine or spinal discs; accident-related whiplash; and abnormal tenderness of neck muscle tissue, according to Zacharia Isaac, MD, and Katherine L. Dec, MD, of Up To Date for Patients. Frequently, doctors cannot accurately diagnose the precise underlying causes of neck pain.
Effectiveness
Acupuncture may help relieve your neck pain. For example, when used to treat chronic neck pain, it can provide superior results to those gained from using a fake, or placebo, treatment, the NCCAM reports. Similarly, a treatment option survey performed by SpineUniverse found that neck pain patients preferred the results of acupuncture to the results gained from traditional spinal injections, according to senior medical writer Karmiah A. Walker. However, variations between different acupuncture studies can make it difficult to pinpoint a true treatment benefit.
Underlying Factors
Several factors contribute to the lack of clarity regarding studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture, according to the NCCAM. These include variations in the particular acupuncture techniques under study; differences in the types of comparison groups used in acupuncture studies; and differences in the methods used to measure the positive or negative outcomes of acupuncture treatment. Additionally, your pre-existing beliefs about the effectiveness of acupuncture may have a large influence on the outcome of treatment, the NCCAM reports. Patients who believe that acupuncture should relieve their pain frequently report greater benefits from their actual treatment than those without such beliefs.
Side Effects
If you receive acupuncture from a trained professional who uses properly sterilized needles, you run very little risk of harmful treatment side effects, the NCCAM notes. On rare occasions, treatment may result in the development of an infection. Typically, your risks from acupuncture are lower than those found in drug-based treatments.
Additional Uses
In addition to treatment of neck pain, you may also receive acupuncture treatments for a variety of other pain-related conditions, including osteoarthritis, headaches, lower back pain, menstrual cramps and fibromyalgia, according to the NCCAM. Like the outcomes reported for neck pain, treatment results for these ailments seem promising, but require further study to identify any concrete benefits.
