Acupuncture for treating acute attacks of migraine: A randomized controlled trial
Ying L et al. – Verum acupuncture treatment is more effective than sham acupuncture based on either Chinese or Western non-acupoints in reducing acute migraine discomfort. Verum acupuncture is also clearly effective in relieving pain and preventing migraine relapse or aggravation. These findings support specific physiological effects that can distinguish genuine acupoints from nonacupoints. Methods- Discussion of results of a multicenter randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of verum acupuncture in treating acute migraine attacks
- Of 218 recruited migraine pts; 180 met inclusion criteria; 175 completed callback process and were randomized into 3 groups
- Verum acupuncture for 1 group
- Sham acupuncture for other 2 groups
- Treatment as 1 session for each pt
- Observation for 24 hrs
- Main outcome measure: differences in visual analog scale (VAS) scores before treatment and 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 hrs after treatment
Results- Significant decreases in VAS scores from baseline 4 hrs after treatment for pts who had either verum acupuncture or sham acupunctures
- VAS scores 4 hrs after treatment decreased by median of 1.0, 0.5, and 0.1 cm in verum acupuncture group, sham acupuncture group 1, and sham acupuncture group 2, respectively
- Significant difference in VAS score change from baseline 2 hrs after treatment among the 3 groups
- At 2 hrs after treatment, only verum acupuncture pts had significant decreases in VAS scores from baseline by a median of 0.7 cm
- Significant differences in pain relief, relapse, or aggravation within 24 hrs after treatment and in general evaluations among 3 groups
- Most acupuncture group pts had complete pain relief (40.7%) with no recurrence or intensification of pain (79.6%)
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