Deeper dry needling showed no clear advantage for neck pain
A review found short-term improvements with both needling depths, without a clinically meaningful difference in pain or functional disability between them.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review found no clinically meaningful difference between deep and superficial dry needling for pain or functional disability in adults with neck pain and upper-trapezius trigger points. Both approaches were linked to short-term improvement. The abstract does not establish equivalence between the techniques or provide results that resolve their longer-term comparative effects.
The abstract omits effect sizes, confidence intervals and the threshold used to judge clinical importance. It also does not specify follow-up times, limiting assessment of the reported comparison.
What researchers found
Pain and functional disability
Deep versus superficial dry needling over short-term follow-up. Exact timing, measurement scales and comparative effect estimates are not supplied in the abstract.
What was compared
The review focused on whether needle depth affected pain and difficulty with daily function in this specific neck-pain group. It included randomized comparisons identified through database searches and considered only studies published in English.
How the trials were rated
Of the 8 included trials, 2 had low risk of bias, 4 raised some concerns and 2 had high risk. These ratings are relevant when weighing the authors' conclusion that the techniques appeared to have similar effects.
The original publication
Deep Versus Superficial Dry Needling for Neck Pain: A Systematic Review of Randomised Clinical Trials.
Alhakami AM, Sahely A, Alshami AMY
Medicina (Kaunas) · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 41155819
- Record checked
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