Most pain treatments are judged on how you feel at the end of the course. The more interesting question is how you feel three, four, five months later — after the appointments have stopped.
For neck pain, there is a randomized-trial answer to that question, and it is a good one.
The finding
A systematic review and meta-analysis in The Lancet pooled 16 randomized controlled trials of low-level laser therapy in neck pain, covering 820 patients. Seven of those trials followed participants after treatment had finished, for periods ranging from one to 22 weeks. The pain relief held. Across those follow-up trials, pain remained reduced on a 100 mm visual analogue scale out to 22 weeks after the last session.
For context, the same pooling found a relative risk of pain improvement of 4.05 in chronic neck pain across five trials reporting categorical outcomes, and a 19.9 mm reduction in pain intensity across the 11 trials reporting that scale. Side effects were mild and no different from placebo.
Why the durability is the useful part
A treatment that works only while you are receiving it has a narrow role. A treatment whose effect outlasts the course has a strategic one, because that window overlaps with the months when the strengthening programme is at its hardest and least rewarding.
That is how we use it at Venturis Clinic: as an adjunct that lowers pain for long enough that the graded loading work — which is what actually changes the tissue’s capacity — becomes something a patient can sustain. The light buys the conditions. The exercise does the building.
The precision that belongs with it
These are pooled averages from trials using a range of devices, wavelengths and doses, and the certainty of the broader evidence base sits at low to moderate rather than high. A 2025 umbrella review covering 15 meta-analyses, 204 randomized trials and more than 9,000 participants found significant effects for 12 outcomes, judged five to reach moderate certainty, and called for standardization of treatment parameters before widespread clinical adoption. Parameters are therefore set individually here and reassessed against scored measurements, not applied as a single protocol. Photobiomodulation is not FDA-cleared for neck pain.
What to do with this
If your neck pain has lasted more than three months, changes with position and load, and is the reason you are not doing strengthening work, the durability finding above is the reason an adjunct is worth discussing. If pain is not what is stopping you, start with the exercise.
Our fuller walkthrough is in Neck Pain: Options Backed by Randomized Trials, and the between-visit programme is in Posture, Strength and the Part That Lasts.
References
Chow RT, Johnson MI, Lopes-Martins RAB, Bjordal JM. Efficacy of low-level laser therapy in the management of neck pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised placebo or active-treatment controlled trials. Lancet 2009;374(9705):1897–1908. PMID 19913903. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61522-1
Son Y, Lee H, Yu S, et al. Effects of photobiomodulation on multiple health outcomes: an umbrella review of randomized clinical trials. Syst Rev 2025;14(1):160. PMID 40770824. doi:10.1186/s13643-025-02902-3
Citation records retrieved from PubMed.
Disclaimer
This article is general education, not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for evaluation by a qualified clinician. It does not establish a physician–patient relationship. Individual results vary, and the studies described report group averages rather than what any one person should expect. Treatments discussed may not be FDA-cleared or approved for the conditions mentioned; where that is the case it is stated in the text. Talk to your own physician before starting, stopping or changing any treatment.
