Auriculotherapy for Chronic Cervical Pain

Objective: Chronic cervical pain is a common and recurrent complaint. Auriculotherapy (AT) or ear acupuncture is an effective complementary method used for pain control, but only a few studies have evaluated this treatment for chronic cervical pain. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of AT to control chronic cervical pain and improve functional capacity. Materials and Methods: This study involved patients with at least 2 years of cervical pain and a neck disability index score (NDI) >5. AT was performed at detectable points once per week over 6 weeks. Patients were evaluated with the NDI and a visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain before and at 1 and 4 months after the final treatments. An analysis of variance test for repeated measures was used for comparisons. Results: During the study, 19 patients, with a mean (± SD) age of 44.5 ± 15.2 years, were enrolled. The majority of the patients were right-handed (89%) and female (79%). The median (interquartile range) disease duration was 48 months (range: 24-66 months ). An average of 4 ear points were used per session; the most frequent points used were: Shen men, Posterior Wall, Zero, and C1. Statistically significant decreases in NDI (15.58 ± 5.93) and VAS (4.76 ± 2.37) scores were observed at 1 and 4 months (8.84 ± 5.59; P < 0.0001 and 3.21 ± 2.12; P = 0.003, respectively) after AT treatment. Conclusions: AT can be used successfully as a complementary method to treat chronic cervical pain.