NCT04942444

Effectiveness of Dry Needling in Fibromyalgia Patients

Dry Needling in Patients With Fibromyalgia: Analysis of Its Therapeutic Effectiveness

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (estimated)
• Sponsor: CEU San Pablo University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) complain of widespread chronic pain from deep tissues including muscles. Previous research highlights the relevance of impulse input from deep tissues for clinical FM pain. Deep dry needle stimulation is an invasive treatment modality used in the management of musculoskeletal pain. Its efficacy has been confirmed in the management of myofascial trigger points, so the purpose of the study is to determine if blocking abnormal impulse input with deep dry needling stimulation of tender point may decrease hyperalgesia, clinical pain and associated symptoms such as anxiety, depression, fatigue and improve the quality of life in FM patients.

Detailed description

Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterized by chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain that is often associated to other manifestations such as fatigue, sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression. FM diagnosis may be performed following the 1990 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria that require a history of widespread pain for at least 3 months and tenderness in at least 11 of 18 defined tender points. Dry needling is a broad term used to differentiate "non-injection" needling from the practice of "injection needling". In contrast to injection of an agent, dry needling utilizes a solid filament needle, as is used in the practice of acupuncture, and relies on the stimulation of specific reactions in the target tissue for its therapeutic effect. Is a relatively new treatment modality used by physicians and physical therapists worldwide as a part of complex treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain. It is minimally invasive, cheap, easy to learn, and carries a low risk of complications. Its efficacy has been confirmed in numerous studies and systematic reviews on management of myofascial trigger points, acute and chronic low back pain, chronic lumbar myofascial trigger points, lumbar myofascial pain, chronic whiplash, and myofascial pain and headaches. The clinical picture of FM suggests an increased activity and/or hypersensitivity in nociceptive pathways or inadequate activity in endogenous pain attenuation mechanisms. Administration of local injections of lidocaine in the tender points is considered a therapeutic approach in the management of FM and this therapy increases plasma concentrations of met-enkephalin. FM patients treated with dry needling also experience a rapid increase of plasma levels of met-enkephalin. Results derived from randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews disclosed no differences between injections of different substances and dry needling in the treatment of myofascial trigger points symptoms. These findings suggest that needling techniques may be effective in the management of FM. Taken together all these considerations, the primary aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of dry needling as a complementary treatment of severely affected FM patients. In addition, the investigators, aimed to establish whether this procedure might still yield some clinical improvement 6 weeks after the discontinuation of this intervention.

Conditions

• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic Pain
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Sleep Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Dry needling	One-hour weekly session of DN in the 18th tender points during 6 weeks in the DNG, apart from continuing their medical treatment. The CG continue with the habitual medical treatment.

Timeline

• Start date: 2011-01-10
• Primary completion: 2011-02-01
• Completion: 2021-07-01
• First posted: 2021-06-28
• Last updated: 2021-06-28

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain