I have had some great opportunities to try out dry needling now, and not only in my private sports massage business.
I have always presented the needling when done privately as an experiment, and gone briefly into the mechanics of the pain physiology behind the process. I believe (currently) that in the converse of the mechanism of explaining chronic pain to sufferers in order to give them some control over the process; explaining the way in which the needles will affect the clients, (and the way they won't) makes me more comfortable. And if this doesn't lead to improved treatment outcomes (although it might well, via non-specific treatment effect if nothing else), it certainly makes me more comfortable with the process than offering it as a definite fix. For now.
With that in mind, it has had some quite impressive results. Notable successes, on treating chronic shin splints, directly to the periosteum; and equally chronic tight calves, with minimal time and pain. Less successful was treating patients who had previous good experience with needling, although they reported it as good success.
A particularly interesting experiment (with a survey size of one) involved offering a friend a free treatment for his ongoing shoulder pain. I treated his affected side with needling, both spinally and locally, and he found it significantly freer and lighter - a common post-treatment report. However, I also treated his less-symptomatic side with articulation as it felt stiff in comparison to the newly needled shoulder.
When I saw him a fortnight later, I asked him about the long-term effects. It appears that the basic articulation lasted for the entire time, whereas the needling lasted only a week! Now, this could have been due to the needled side starting as being the more symptomatic side. But it bears further investigation!
The greatest success, however, was actually done in clinic! I discovered that as long as the tutors I was working with were themselves insured for needling, (and they consented, or observed as required) it was possible to needle in clinic. An extremely acute patient came in, in severe pain, and I was unable to do much more than gentle functional technique to his back due to discomfort. Afterwards I mentioned to my tutor that I was considering suggesting needling to the patient, and the tutor agreed! When the patient returned the week after and mentioned that they had a history of positive response to needling I suggested that we could try the same. This had a profound relaxing effect on him, but more significantly, made a tremendous impact on his fibrotic lumbar erector spinae to palpation, which lasted week on week. In addition, he reported a complete sea-change in his sleep habits, from half an hour per night at best to full nights!
I later found some research which supported this: Effects of individualized acupuncture on sleep quality in HIV disease, but it was tremendous to see such an impact in person and prompt the research.
Of course, I don't think that the act of needling was the only factor in the patients improvement as there were significant biopsychosocial factors at play, and the act of relaxing in the treatment seemed also to be very important. Nevertheless, an exciting case.
I have always presented the needling when done privately as an experiment, and gone briefly into the mechanics of the pain physiology behind the process. I believe (currently) that in the converse of the mechanism of explaining chronic pain to sufferers in order to give them some control over the process; explaining the way in which the needles will affect the clients, (and the way they won't) makes me more comfortable. And if this doesn't lead to improved treatment outcomes (although it might well, via non-specific treatment effect if nothing else), it certainly makes me more comfortable with the process than offering it as a definite fix. For now.
With that in mind, it has had some quite impressive results. Notable successes, on treating chronic shin splints, directly to the periosteum; and equally chronic tight calves, with minimal time and pain. Less successful was treating patients who had previous good experience with needling, although they reported it as good success.
A particularly interesting experiment (with a survey size of one) involved offering a friend a free treatment for his ongoing shoulder pain. I treated his affected side with needling, both spinally and locally, and he found it significantly freer and lighter - a common post-treatment report. However, I also treated his less-symptomatic side with articulation as it felt stiff in comparison to the newly needled shoulder.
When I saw him a fortnight later, I asked him about the long-term effects. It appears that the basic articulation lasted for the entire time, whereas the needling lasted only a week! Now, this could have been due to the needled side starting as being the more symptomatic side. But it bears further investigation!
The greatest success, however, was actually done in clinic! I discovered that as long as the tutors I was working with were themselves insured for needling, (and they consented, or observed as required) it was possible to needle in clinic. An extremely acute patient came in, in severe pain, and I was unable to do much more than gentle functional technique to his back due to discomfort. Afterwards I mentioned to my tutor that I was considering suggesting needling to the patient, and the tutor agreed! When the patient returned the week after and mentioned that they had a history of positive response to needling I suggested that we could try the same. This had a profound relaxing effect on him, but more significantly, made a tremendous impact on his fibrotic lumbar erector spinae to palpation, which lasted week on week. In addition, he reported a complete sea-change in his sleep habits, from half an hour per night at best to full nights!
I later found some research which supported this: Effects of individualized acupuncture on sleep quality in HIV disease, but it was tremendous to see such an impact in person and prompt the research.
Of course, I don't think that the act of needling was the only factor in the patients improvement as there were significant biopsychosocial factors at play, and the act of relaxing in the treatment seemed also to be very important. Nevertheless, an exciting case.