Cure My Disease

Don't miss your cure!

 Log in / Sign up

Can fewer acupuncture sessions tame chronic heel pain?

NCT ID NCT06284993

Symptom relief Sponsor: Guang'anmen Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Source: ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

What the study statuses mean

This study's is highlighted.

Recruitment status, easiest to join first

Recruiting now This study
This trial is taking on new participants right now.
Not yet recruiting
Registered, but not yet taking participants.
By invitation only
Not open to general applications. Only people the study team invites can take part.
Paused
Paused for now. It may or may not start again.
Ongoing
Running, but no longer taking on new participants.
Completed
The trial has finished. Results may not be published yet.
Stopped early
Stopped early, before it reached the end. That can be for many reasons, including safety.
Cancelled
Cancelled before anyone took part.

Expanded access (not trials)

Expanded access
Not a trial. This treatment can be requested outside a study, case by case, for people who qualify.
Expanded access (paused)
Not a trial. The treatment can normally be requested outside a study, but is unavailable right now.
Expanded access (ended)
Not a trial. The treatment could once be requested outside a study, but no longer can.
Approved
The treatment has been approved, so it is available normally rather than through this programme.

When the status isn't known

Details not published
The full record has not been published yet, so there is little to show here.
Status unknown
This status has not been confirmed recently, so it may be out of date.

First seen Sep 11, 2026 · Last updated Sep 11, 2026

Summary

Researchers are comparing two schedules of electroacupuncture for adults with chronic plantar fasciitis, a common cause of heel pain. Participants receive either one session per week or three sessions per week for four weeks. The trial measures whether at least half of participants in each group report a 50 percent or greater drop in their worst morning heel pain, to see if the less frequent schedule works just as well.

What this could mean

Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.

Active substance
electroacupuncture, a form of acupuncture that uses small electrical currents through the needles
What this could lead to
If weekly sessions work as well as three per week, people with chronic heel pain could get the same relief with less time, cost, and needle discomfort.
What could go wrong
This is a small, single-center study of 80 people, so the results may not apply broadly. Acupuncture can cause soreness, minor bleeding, or bruising, and some people may not respond at all.

This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.

Study facts

What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.

Phase

Not a phased trial

Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.

Participants

About 80 people

The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.

Started

May 2024

Expected to finish

Dec 2027

An estimate. End dates often move.

Lead sponsor

Other sponsor

The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.

Who can take part

This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.

Ages

18 to 75 years

Sex

Anyone

Healthy volunteers

Not accepted

This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.

Show the full entry requirements

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients with a diagnosis of chronic PF with a disease course of ≥ 6 months; * The most painful heel pain in the morning is Visual Analogue Scale (VAS; 0 indicating no pain and 100 indicating maximal pain) ≥ 40 mm on a 100 mm VAS; * Patients between the ages of 18 and 75 years; * Patients should be conscious, free from mental disorders, and without serious heart, liver, or kidney diseases; and * Willing to sign the informed consent form. Exclusion Criteria: * History of calcaneal tuberosity fracture/calcaneal stress fracture/calcaneal contusion/plantar fascia rupture; * History of ankle or foot surgery; * Achilles tendon enthesis lesion/tarsal tunnel syndrome/medial calcaneal nerve entrapment/nerve injury; * Systemic or local infection, severe cracked heel, foot deformity (e.g., high arched feet, flat feet, foot valgus); * Systemic diseases (e.g., obligatory spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, seronegative arthritis, autoimmune system diseases, tumors, diabetes ) and other situations judged by the investigators not to be suitable for the clinical trial; * Pregnant women; patients with severe combined cardiac, hepatic, renal, hematopoietic, and patients with cardiac pacemakers , and patients with severe poor general nutritional status; * Cognitive impairment, inability to understand the content of the scale evaluation; * Topical steroid injection or oral use in the past 6 months; * Patients with a known fear of acupuncture or who have been treated with acupuncture in the past 8 weeks.

Get updates

Get notified about this study

Sign up to get updates when this study changes or when new studies for Plantar fasciitis, chronic are added.

Our safety recommendation!

By submitting, you agree to our Terms of use

Conditions

The condition(s) this trial relates to.

plantar fasciitis

As listed by the trial registrant

The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.

Plantar fasciitis, chronic

How to take part

Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.

  1. The places running it

    1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.

  2. The official record

    ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.

    Open the record ↗

  3. A doctor treating you

    A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.

Contacts and locations

Locations

  • Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Guang'anmen Hospital

    RECRUITING

    Beijing, China

More trials for these conditions

Other studies related to the condition(s) this trial covers.