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A 6-week course of acupuncture proves as effective as 6-month drug prophylaxis for migraines, with specific Chinese point selection and stimulation appearing less important.
2022 Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics Role of acupuncture in the treatment of migraine Endres HG, Diener HC, Molsberger A
Review Article Headache & Migraine Migraine
The study began by revisiting previous research on acupuncture as a treatment for headache, finding shortcomings in many of these studies. It explored the influence of acupuncture on migraine and how it potentially functions. The methodology involved running several large, randomized trials comparing the use of acupuncture to conventional prophylactic drug treatments, spanning a time frame of six weeks to six months, respectively.
In the discussion of the results, it was found that the 6-week acupuncture treatment was just as effective in treating migraines as the 6-month drug treatment. Specific attributes of the acupuncture treatment, such as the selection and stimulation of Chinese points and the depth of the needles, were found to have lower significance than traditionally believed. The paper therefore suggested the integration of acupuncture into existing migraine therapy protocols.
Acupuncture could be as effective as pharmacological drugs for migraine prevention, with improved patient compliance and fewer adverse events.
2021 Frontiers in Neurology A Randomized Clinical Trial on Acupuncture Versus Best Medical Therapy in Episodic Migraine Prophylaxis: The ACUMIGRAN Study Giannini G, Favoni V, Merli E, Nicodemo M, Torelli P, Matrà A, et al.
Randomised Controlled Trial Migraine
In the study, patients experiencing migraines who hadn't undergone preventive treatment in the prior 3 months were randomly divided into two groups. Group A underwent 12 acupuncture sessions, while Group B received a range of suitable medications for each individual. The frequency of headaches was compared at the beginning and end of treatment, and both groups were assessed after three and six months post-treatment.
Results highlighted that both treatments led to a significant decrease in headache frequency. Of the patients, around 34% saw a 50% reduction of headache days post-treatment. The improvements seen at the end of treatment were maintained in 57.3% of patients three months after and in 38.8% of patients six months after, notably in the acupuncture group. Based on this data, acupuncture can be seen as an effective alternative for migraine prophylaxis.
Acupuncture reduced more headache days and the times of using painkiller and was more effective in reducing the frequency and degree of headache than western medicine and sham acupuncture.
2020 Pain Research & Management Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture for Migraine: An Overview of Systematic Reviews Li YX, Xiao XL, Zhong DL, Luo LJ, Yang H, Zhou J, et al.
Systematic Review Headache & Migraine Migraine
Based on high quality of evidence, we conclude that acupuncture is more effective and safer than medication or sham acupuncture in the treatment of migraine. However, the methodological quality, risk of bias, and reporting quality of SRs in acupuncture for migraine still needs improvement in future.
Ginger, through various methods, exhibits promising pain reduction effects for conditions such as dysmenorrhea, muscle soreness, osteoarthritis, low back pain, and migraines.
2020 Phytotherapy Research Clinical trials on pain lowering effect of ginger: A narrative review Rondanelli M, Fossari F, Vecchio V, Gasparri C, Peroni G, Spadaccini D, et al.
Review Article Chronic Pain Ginger Low Back Pain
The review incorporates a vast range of randomized controlled trials conducted over the past decade, where ginger was mainly used for pain relief in distinct conditions. The conditions included dysmenorrhea, delayed onset muscle soreness, osteoarthritis, chronic low back pain, and migraines. The variety of methods used included oral administration, topical application, and aromatic oil massages.
In the analysed trials, for dysmenorrhea and muscle soreness, the considered studies suggested a promising effect after both oral and topical administration of ginger. As for osteoarthritis, most trials demonstrated pain reduction following topical and oral use of ginger, one focused on the beneficial effects of ginger in relieving migraine pain. Last but not least, a trial involving massages with aromatic ginger oil highlighted its potential in reducing chronic low back pain.
Acupuncture has the advantage for acute and preventive treatment of migraine in pain improvement and safety.
2019 Pain Research & Management An Overview of Systematic Reviews of Randomized Controlled Trials on Acupuncture Treating Migraine Xia-tian Zhang, Xin-yi Li, Chen Zhao, Ye-yin Hu, Yi-yi Lin, He-qing Chen, et al.
Systematic Review Migraine
This overview included a considerable number of systematic reviews/meta analyses (SR/MAs), illustrating that acupuncture has the advantage in pain improvement of VAS score, headache days/frequency, analgesic use and efficacy of response rate, and effective rate according to the present evidence.
In terms of conclusion, the results of all 15 (100%) SR/MAs were positive. For treatment, 6 SR/MAs reported acupuncture had superiority relative to drugs; 4 SR/MAs reported acupuncture had superiority relative to sham acupuncture, drugs; 3 SR/MAs reported acupuncture had superiority relative to sham acupuncture; 1 SR/MA reported acupuncture had superiority relative to drugs, other TCM treatments. 1 SR/MA reported that acupuncture had superiority in treating migraine, but did not mention the control group in the conclusions.
Based on previous evidence we reviewed, we supposed acupuncture might be a kind of available treatment for migraine in preventive or acute treatment, but in consideration of low methodological quality of present SR/MAs or RCTs of acupuncture for migraine, we need more high-quality evidence to demonstrate the effect of acupuncture for migraine.
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