Motion Acupuncture Shows 4x Faster Recovery for Acute Neck Pain

A new study has found that motion-style acupuncture treatment (MAT), a technique that combines acupuncture with guided movement, is effective in treating acute neck pain.

Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine announced Wednesday that a research team led by Lee Yun-jae, deputy director of the Spine and Joint Research Institute, evaluated the clinical efficacy and safety of MAT on 128 patients aged 19 to 70 with acute cervical pain that had developed within the past four weeks. The multi-center trial was conducted across four Jaseng Hospital locations in Gangnam, Daejeon, Bucheon and Haeundae.

MAT is a treatment method in which a Korean medicine doctor inserts acupuncture needles at the affected area, then uses hands or other body parts to guide the patient through passive and active movements to enhance the therapeutic effects of acupuncture and relieve pain.

The research team designed a multi-center randomized clinical trial based on the assessment that research remained insufficient despite the widespread use of acupuncture for acute cervical pain. This is the first case in which the effectiveness of MAT for acute cervical pain has been confirmed through a multi-center clinical study.

The team randomly assigned the recruited patients on a 1:1 basis into a MAT group and a conventional acupuncture group. Both groups received an average of 5.5 treatments over two weeks at a frequency of two to three sessions per week. Measurements of the visual analog scale (VAS) for neck pain and the Neck Disability Index (NDI) before and after treatment showed that the MAT group achieved significantly greater pain reduction than the conventional acupuncture group. At week three, the conventional acupuncture group recorded a mean VAS score of 38.23 during movement, while the MAT group recorded 22.99. The gap between the two groups was maintained at 14.23 points through week nine. Higher VAS and NDI scores indicate more severe pain and greater functional disability in daily life, respectively.

For pain at rest, the MAT group recorded a VAS score of 18.13 at week three compared with 30.54 for the conventional acupuncture group, a difference of 12.42 points. The gap remained at 12.10 points at week nine, demonstrating the superior pain reduction effect of MAT.