Neural Therapy Simply Explained

1. What It Is About

Neural therapy was developed in the 1920s by the brothers Ferdinand and Walter Huneke. In this procedure, a local anaesthetic – usually procaine or lidocaine – is injected into specific areas of the body. The agent temporarily dampens the pain there. Injections are administered with thin needles and small amounts, often in several consecutive sessions.

Neural therapy knows three forms. In segmental therapy, injections are made into the skin, muscles or joints of a body section. In disturbance field therapy, injections are made into areas that are considered chronically inflamed or scarred, for example into scars. Such sites are called disturbance fields by the procedure; they are said to act via nerve pathways on distant body regions. In ganglion therapy, injections are made at nerve nodes.

Important for research: In studies, neural therapy is rarely tested alone. Mostly it is about trigger point injections. A trigger point is a hardened, pressure-sensitive area in the muscle. This is technically similar, but based on a different explanation.

2. What Studies Show

The best studied are pains in the musculoskeletal system. Several studies with anaesthetic injections into painful muscles showed short-term improvements: The pains subsided, and the affected individuals could move better. These results are considered indications, but not yet confirmed. Many studies are small and observed the participants for only a few weeks.

A 2022 review summarised six studies on neck pain. Injections with anaesthetic into painful muscle points reduced pain intensity more than needles without agent, the so-called dry needling 2.

A 2024 study followed 50 people with chest pain not originating from the heart, and with pressure-sensitive points in the chest muscles. One group received injections plus stretching exercises, the other only stretching exercises. The group with the injections had significantly less pain after one and after three months 3.

A 2023 review evaluated four studies on acute muscle pain. Injections into the painful points relieved the pain more than medication. Serious side effects were not reported. Possible were temporary pain or bruises at the injection site 6.

A 2002 study examined 60 people with renal colic, that is, severe pain waves due to a kidney stone. One half received an anaesthetic injected into painful muscle points, the other a painkiller via the vein. In the injection group, pain disappeared in 15 of 30 persons immediately, and after an average of nine minutes it was halved. A group with a sham procedure did not exist 1.

An observational study from 2017 followed 21 men with chronic pelvic pain. During treatment with injections and physiotherapy, their pain score decreased from 6.3 to 2.9 points on a scale up to 10, and the symptoms improved. A comparison group was missing 5.

3. What Remains Unclear

Many studies do not compare neural therapy with a sham procedure, but different injection types with each other. Therefore, it is difficult to say how much comes from the injection alone and how much from the procedure. A 2026 study on 75 people with pain in the masticatory muscles found no differences between dry needling and injections with an anaesthetic 4.

There are also few observations over long periods. Most studies followed the participants for only a few weeks. Comparisons with established treatments such as physiotherapy have not been conducted so far. Controlled studies on the concept of disturbance fields, the core of neural therapy, are still outstanding. And the results on trigger point injections cannot be directly transferred to disturbance field therapy. For areas such as the immune system, psyche or cancer diseases, there are only individual small studies. Larger studies with sham comparison and long-term observation would clarify these questions.

4. What This Means in Everyday Life

Those who read about neural therapy encounter many positive reports, especially for muscle and joint pain. These reports mostly come from small studies with short observation periods. The best evidence is for short-term effects in musculoskeletal pain when injections are made into painful muscle points. Indications, but not yet confirmed, exist for inflammatory pain conditions. For everything else, such as disturbance fields or complaints without pain, it is so far only a hypothesis.

In the investigated applications, the side effects were minor. Reported were temporary pain or bruises at the injection site, no serious incidents. Because a comparison with a sham procedure is mostly missing, it remains open what proportion of the improvement is due to the procedure itself. Exactly this question would have to be clarified by the next studies.

All details with study numbers and sources: detailed page on neural therapy. For children: Neural therapy for children.