Emergency Med Medical News about acute attacks of migraine; acupuncture

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Acupuncture for treating acute attacks of migraine: A randomized controlled trial
Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 05/01/09

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%)