Acupuncture reduces migraine effectively- research update

A WHO survey showed that migraine was ranked as the seventh highest cause of disability in the world, accounting for 2.9% of all years of life lost to disability. But the pain management is still challenging due to ineffectiveness of medication and side effects of drugs. People turn to complementary and alternative methods to help. Vitamins, diet, massage, acupuncture, relaxation/meditation, biofeedback, light avoidance and hot/cold therapy belonged to the most popular therapies.

A recent research studied the effectiveness of acupuncture for migraine. In this study 91 patients aged from 18-70 with a history of migraine for at least 12 months and a mimimum 4 days migraine per 4 weeks attending the neurology outpatient clinic at the University Hospital Hradec Kralove.

The treatment period is 12 weeks with 14 acupuncture treatments: twice a week in the first 4 weeks, once a week during weeks 5–8 and once every 14 days during the last month.

The result has shown that after 12 weeks of acupuncture treatments and 6 months follow-up the number of migraine days was reduced significantly more compared with control group. The number of responders to the treatment was also greater in acupuncture group. The intake of medication was reduced significantly in acupuncture group at the end of the treatment and 6 month follow-up.

References

Musil F et al, Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat (2018) May 10;14:1221-1228. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S155119. eCollection 2018.