Determining the Impact of Dry Needling and Soft Tissue Mobilization on Pain and Pain Medication Usage

Dry needling is an increasingly common alternative treatment strategy for musculoskeletal and myofascial pain with purported benefits such as: (1) relaxing the muscles, (2) boosting blood flow, (3) diminishing inflammation, and (4) triggering a healing response. Dry needling has demonstrated a positive effect on pain and the resting activation of needled muscles in male subjects presenting with quad pain post ACL surgery, however there are not yet established Clinical Practice guidelines. The overall goal of this study is to develop a survey that can be distributed to MHS providers, those who perform dry needling and those who do not, to gauge current practices and barriers to clinical practice and learn more about provider training. Ultimately, we intend to work towards establishment of Clinical Practice Guidelines and development of prospective research protocol(s).