Article History
Received: 15 August 2024
Accepted: 6 February 2025
First Online: 25 February 2025
Declarations
:
: A favourable ethical opinion was given by the NHS Health Research Authority (HRA) London Surrey REC and ethics approval was given by the HRA on 03/11/2020 (REC reference 20/LO/0598). All participants gave informed consent to participate.
: The study was registered on the ISRCTN trials registry on June 04, 2020, registration number 13671984. The trial protocol is available via the Open Science Framework at .
: All participants gave informed consent for publication.
: KC holds the post of research director of the Northern College of Acupuncture, York, UK. DT and JW have no competing interests to declare.