Trigeminal Neuralgia

Presentation Slides

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture can be effective and safe for primary trigeminal neuralgia. Five acupuncture methods were superior to conventional medicine (carbamazepine) in pain reduction intensity and response rate.

2022 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Acupuncture Methods for Primary Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Yin Z, Wang F, Sun M, Zhao L, Liang F

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture is associated with a reduction in the risk of depression during long-term follow-up in patients with trigeminal neuralgia.

2020 Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment Long-Term Beneficial Effects of Acupuncture with Reduced Risk of Depression Development Following Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study
Liao CC, Lin CL, Liao KR, Li JM

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Review Article

Acupuncture therapy seems to decrease frequency and intensity of trigeminal neuralgia pain episodes, alone or in combination with gold standard medications.

2020 Revista Internacional de Acupuntura Acupuncture therapy in trigeminal neuralgia: An integrative literature review
Aquino I, Nascimento M, Aquino T, Kosminsky M

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture appears to be the least expensive therapeutic modality to deliver long-term in the management of trigeminal neuralgia, and our analysis indicated that it was less stressful to patients than pharmacotherapy or surgery.

2020 Acupuncture in Medicine Acupuncture in the management of trigeminal neuralgia
Edwards, J. W., & Shaw, V.

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture appears more effective than pharmacotherapy or surgery in the management of trigeminal neuralgia.

2020 Acupuncture in Medicine Acupuncture in the management of trigeminal neuralgia
Edwards, J. W., & Shaw, V.

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Case Report

Acupuncture for cluster headache may be more effective if treated in the same way as has been shown effective for trigeminal neuralgia.

2018 Acupuncture in Medicine Acupuncture for Episodic Cluster Headache: A Trigeminal Approach
Simon Hayhoe

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Clinical Study

Chinese acupuncture is safe and can be efficient in alleviating pain in patients suffering from temporomandibular disorder without clear joint pathology.

2010 Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies Acupuncture for treating temporomandibular disorder: retrospective study on safety and efficacy
Noiman M, Garty A, Maimon Y, Miller U, Lev-Ari S.

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

The evidence reviewed previously suggests that acupuncture is of similar efficacy as carbamazepine but with fewer adverse effects in treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.

2010 Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine A systematic review on acupuncture for trigeminal neuralgia
Liu H, Li H, Xu M, Chung KF, Zhang SP

Executive Summary

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Research into Chinese medicine treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia" summarising the research below and using language that can be easily understood by patients and avoiding medical jargon using a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Researched Chinese medicine treatments for Trigeminal Neuralgia" summarising the research below in an objective and easy to understand way, and using language that can be easily understood by patients. Group the article into Chinese medicine treatments first, followed by nutrition and other treatments. Avoid using medical jargon and use a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write me a concise but easy to understand executive summary on the topic of "Chinese medicine treatments for Trigeminal Neuralgia" based on the following research that I will give you. Your summary should be 2 paragraphs long in Australian English spelling and include references to the studies.

A Systematic Review published in 2022 in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that Acupuncture can be effective and safe for primary trigeminal neuralgia. Five acupuncture methods were superior to conventional medicine (carbamazepine) in pain reduction intensity and response rate. A total of 58 RCTs with 4,126 participants were obtained. The meta-analysis indicated that five acupuncture methods were superior to conventional medicine (carbamazepine) in pain reduction intensity and response rate. Meanwhile, electronic acupuncture plus manual acupuncture was the most effective therapy since it reduced pain intensity in 11 methods and improved the response rate in 10 interventions. Moreover, six interventions had acceptable adverse events, and none of the included studies reported severe adverse events. However, most pieces of evidence were ranked as critically low. These findings show that acupuncture methods can be effective and safe for PTN. Moreover, electronic acupuncture plus manual acupuncture may be the best acupuncture treatment for PTN and should be administered to PTN patients. However, additional well-designed and high-quality RCTs should be conducted to verify the above findings in the future.

A Systematic Review published in 2020 in the journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment found that Acupuncture is associated with a reduction in the risk of depression during long-term follow-up in patients with trigeminal neuralgia. In total, 776 patients with newly diagnosed trigeminal neuralgia in each cohort with similar baseline characteristics were enrolled in the study. The acupuncture cohort had a reduced risk of depression compared to the non-acupuncture cohort. Kaplan–Meier analysis also revealed that the cumulative incidence of depression was significantly lower in the acupuncture cohort during the 13-year follow-up period. In particular, the beneficial effect of acupuncture was a decrease in the risk of depression among TN patients aged 50– 69 years who had also used carbamazepine.

A Review Article published in 2020 in the journal Revista Internacional de Acupuntura found that Acupuncture therapy seems to decrease frequency and intensity of trigeminal neuralgia pain episodes, alone or in combination with gold standard medications. Among the six studies selected, most were randomized controlled clinical trials, developed in China. Only one study performed a retrospective cross-sectional. To assess pain, most used the VAS scale. There were very similar methods concerning points selection and treatment protocols. All studies found a significant decrease in pain frequency or intensity, disregarding the type of acupuncture applied.

A Systematic Review published in 2020 in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine found that Acupuncture appears to be the least expensive therapeutic modality to deliver long-term in the management of trigeminal neuralgia, and our analysis indicated that it was less stressful to patients than pharmacotherapy or surgery. Acupuncture also had fewer mean reported side effects compared with surgery and pharmacotherapy, and the lowest cost; after 5 years, the cost of acupuncture was estimated to be £750, compared to £1507.73 for carbamazepine and £4878.42 for microvascular decompression. Acupuncture was the least stressful according to the Holmes and Rahe’s Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) (53 points), whereas surgery was second most stressful (153 points) and pharmacotherapy was the most stressful intervention to patients (217 points).

A Systematic Review published in 2020 in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine found that Acupuncture appears more effective than pharmacotherapy or surgery in the management of trigeminal neuralgia. Acupuncture appears more effective than pharmacotherapy or surgery. Statistical analysis of side effects was not possible due to inconsistent reporting protocols, but the data suggest that acupuncture is considerably safer than pharmacotherapy or surgery. Acupuncture also appears to be the least expensive therapeutic modality to deliver long-term (65 weeks onwards), and our analysis indicated that it was less stressful to patients than pharmacotherapy or surgery. Further study into these areas and the practicality of its availability in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and other health systems is recommended.

A Case Report published in 2018 in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine found that Acupuncture for cluster headache may be more effective if treated in the same way as has been shown effective for trigeminal neuralgia. Acupuncture has not generally been successful for cluster headache. This may be due to acupuncturists approaching the problem as one of severe migraine. In fact, cluster headache is classed as a trigeminal autonomic cephalgia. In this case report, episodic cluster headache is treated in the same way as has been shown effective for trigeminal neuralgia. Acupuncture is applied to the contralateral side at points appropriate for stimulating branches of the trigeminal nerve. Thus, ST2 is used for the infraorbital nerve, BL2 and Yuyao for the supratrochlear and supraorbital nerves, and Taiyang for the temporal branch of the zygomatic nerve.

A Clinical Study published in 2010 in the journal Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies found that Chinese acupuncture is safe and can be efficient in alleviating pain in patients suffering from temporomandibular disorder without clear joint pathology. The results of this study showed that Chinese acupuncture was safe as administered here and was efficient in alleviating pain in patients suffering from temporomandibular disorder not caused by an osseous source. In approximately 90% of these patients, a statistically significant pain alleviation was observed, with the pain completely gone in most patients.

A Systematic Review published in 2010 in the journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine found that The evidence reviewed previously suggests that acupuncture is of similar efficacy as carbamazepine but with fewer adverse effects in treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria with 506 people in the acupuncture arm and 414 people in the control arm, in which carbamazepine (CBZ) was used as the control treatment. They were all low-quality studies, hence precluding meta-analysis. Only four trials reported that acupuncture was superior to CBZ, and the remaining eight studies showed no difference between the treatment and control groups. Adverse effects of acupuncture, which were reported in three studies, were mild.

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