Determination of the acute analgesic effect of acupuncture on the pain symptom of patients with myofascial pain syndrome presenting with neck and shoulder pain

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the acute analgesic effect of acupuncture on the pain symptom of patients with myofascial pain syndrome who presented with neck and shoulder pain. Method: The study was conducted as a parallel group, double-blind, randomized controlled experiment. Sixty volunteer patients over 18 years of age who applied to DEU Education Family Health Centers, had neck and shoulder pain and met the criteria for myofascial pain syndrome, inclusion and exclusion were included in the study. Patients were divided into intervention and control groups using the block randomization method. An acupuncture session under the principles of traditional Chinese medicine was applied to 30 patients in the intervention group by the acupuncture practitioner, and superficial needling was applied to the non-acupuncture points in the control group. The needles remained in the body for 20 minutes. As a data collection tool; Patient Data Form and VAS (visual analog scale) were used. The 0th minute and 30th minute VAS scores of the patients were measured. Data collection was conducted by an officer other than the acupuncture practitioner. As statistical analysis; descriptive analysis, dependent and independent groups t-test, chi-square analysis, Fisher's exact test and ANOVA were used. Findings: According to the initial measurements of the patients presenting with acute neck pain and shoulder pain, there was no difference between demographic variables and VAS scores, and the groups were similar to each other. At the initial evaluation, the VAS score was 7.03 ± 0.92 in the intervention group and 6.80 ± 1.03 in the control group (p=0.361). At the 30th minute after the application of acupuncture in the intervention group, the VAS score was found to be 2.23 ± 1.16 according to the pain assessment, while the VAS score in the control group was 5.93 ± 1.08, and a 37% decrease in pain was found in the intervention group compared to the control group (p). Results: It was determined that acupuncture had an acute analgesic effect on the pain symptom of patients with MAS who presented with neck and shoulder pain. Key words: myofascial pain syndrome, neck pain, shoulder pain, acupuncture