NCT07015281

Dry Needling With Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation and Exercises for Non-specific Chronic Neck Pain

Dry Needling With Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation + Exercises Verus Therapeutic Execises in Patients With Non-specific Chronic Neck Pain

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 100 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Universidad de Almeria · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The aim of this study is to compare the effects of applying dry needling with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation + exercises verus therapeutic execises in patients with non-specific chronic neck pain.

Detailed description

Globally, neck pain is considered the fourth leading cause of years lived with disability. It is estimated that up to 70% of the world's population will experience neck pain at least once in their lifetime, and between 50% and 85% of cases will become chronic within a five-year period. The point prevalence of neck pain in the adult population, aged 15-74 years, ranges from 5.9% to 38.7%. This prevalence has been observed to peak in the 50-74 age group. In 2017, the global age-standardized prevalence and incidence of neck pain were 3551.1 and 806.6 per 100,000 population, respectively. Dry needling with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation has positive short-term effects on pain intensity, pain-related disability, and mood in patients with chronic nonspecific neck pain, compared with no or minimal intervention. However, the long-term impact could not be assessed due to a lack of available studies. Furthermore, strong evidence has been found suggesting that dry needling with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation may improve mental well-being and mood in patients with chronic neck pain, especially in those with pain induced by high levels of stress.

Conditions

• Neck Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Dry Needling with Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (PENS) and Therapeutic Exercises.	Patients assigned to this group (n=50) will receive an intervention in which PENS will be applied for 30 minutes with low frequency parameters (2 Hz) and a pulse width of 120 μs. After 30 minutes of PENS in both groups, the needle will be removed and a compression will be applied for 90 seconds. Once the compression will carried out, the technique will be concluded. Patients will develop a session of PENS and a session with therapeutic exercise once a week.
OTHER	Therapeutic Exercise	These participants (n=50) will engage in an exercise protocol with aerobic, isometric, resistence, strength, and stretching exercises. Participants will perform these exercises with a frequency of 3 times a week for 6 weeks, with each session lasting 30 minutes.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-06-30
• Primary completion: 2025-12-30
• Completion: 2026-02-15
• First posted: 2025-06-11
• Last updated: 2025-12-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain