The needle-knife therapy was significantly superior to acupuncture-cupping on improvement of neck stiffness in the follow-up of 1 , 3 , 6 months after treatment ( P < 0.05 , P < 0.001 ) ; both treatments were effective on relief of neck pain , but the needle-knife group had better effects in the follow-up of 3 and 6 months after treatment compared with acupuncture-cupping group ( both P < 0.01 ) .