Results
Twenty-six volunteers who had pain syndrome
were examined. Eight were excluded. Among
these, two had myofascial pain of the upper back and
shoulder, the others suffered from acute injury or other
causes of musculoskeletal pain. Eighteen subjects
who were enrolled in the present study were randomly
divided between the massage and acupuncture groups.
One subject in the massage group dropped out
because of post-massage soreness. There was no significant
difference in age, onset and all parametric
scores between the two groups at the beginning of
the treatment.
At day 10, subjects in the acupuncture group
showed significant improvement in all parameters
compared to the baseline. A significant reduction in
McGill scores and VAS started at day 3 assessment
(p < 0.001 and p = 0.034, respectively) the pain threshold
increased significantly at day 8 assessment (p = 0.01).
In the massage group, a significant improvement was
found only in the McGill score and VAS, whereas the
pressure pain threshold did not show a significant
increase. A significant reduction in McGill scores and
VAS began at day 3 assessment (p = 0.005 and 0.033,
respectively), as shown in Table 2.
Each parameter between the two groups was
compared at each time point. There was a trend
towards increased pain reduction in the acupuncture
group throughout the trial, however, only pain
reduction measured by McGill pain questionnaire at
day 10 showed significant difference (95% confidence
interval -17.39 to1.11, p < 0.05), as shown in Table 3,
Fig. 1-3.