After reflecting on my previous post about dry needlers, I felt the need to explore the subject further. From the few websites I had scanned in the process of seeing what type of training was available, it seemed like dry needling had been a treatment before acupuncture started gaining ground in the 1970's. I was interested to see if dry needling had evolved from acupuncture, as a western counterpoint to acupuncture, or from somewhere else entirely. As it turns out, it’s the latter.
As noted by Brav and Sigmond (1941), common treatment for various types of pain such as sciatica was to inject an anesthetic solution into the nerve and surrounding tissue. Many different types of solutions had been tried and amazingly, it was observed that just about any substance injected had the same effect. Taking a cue from acupuncture, Brav and Sigmond set up an experiment with three groups of participants: a group that would receive the standard injection of anesthetic novocaine, a ground that would receive an injection of saline, and a group that would have a needle inserted but receive no injection. Though the novocaine group reported the greatest pain relief, the "dry needle" group was close behind in second place.
Other researchers followed up on the experiment, posting their own reports that contained results agreeing with Brav and Sigmond's conclusion (Levine, Gormley, & Fields, 1976; Moral, 2010; Paulett, 1947; Travell & Rinzler, 1952). Though dry needling did not immediately become a mainstream treatment, the research continued to evolve and the practice gained exponential growth in the early 2000's (Legge, 2014). Though it shares much in common with acupuncture (and it has grown by riding piggyback on acupuncture's growing popularity), its practitioners typically use western explanations of nerve and muscular trigger point therapy rather than using terms related to Qi or meridians.
Works Cited
Brav, E. A., & Sigmond, H. (1941). The local and regional injection treatment of low back pain and sciatica. Ann Int Med, 15, 840-52.
Legge, D. (2014). A History of Dry Needling. Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain, 22(3), 301-7. doi:10.3109/10582452.2014.883041
Levine, J., Gormley, J., & Fields, H. (1976). Observations on the analgesic effects of needle puncture. Pain, 2, 149-59.
Moral, O. (2010). Dry needling treatments for myofascial trigger points. Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain, 18, 411-6.
Paulett, J. (1947). Low back pain. Lancet, 2, 272-6.
Travell, J., & Rinzler, S. (1952). The myofascial genesis of pain. Postgrad Med, 11, 425-34.
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