Am J Chin Med. 1987 ; 15(1-2): 69-75.

Are there long lasting effects on migraine headache after one series of acupuncture treatments?

Boivie J, Brattberg G.

Department of Neurology, Linkoping, Sweden.

The long term effect of one series of acupuncture treatments on migraine headache was investigated. Twenty-five patients (20 women, 5 men) with a mean migraine history of 22 years and a stable, severe migraine (mean frequency 8 days/28 days) completed the study, out of 30 originally enrolled. The patients recorded the presence, severity and duration of headache as well as drug consumption during three 12 weeks long periods: one pretreatment period (baseline period = BP), follow up period I (FU I) immediately following the treatment period of 6-8 weeks and follow up period II (FU II) starting the 25th post treatment week. An index for migrainous headache was calculated for each 28 day period (number of days times severity rated 1, 2 or 3). Acupuncture was given close to or in the region of the headache. During FU I and FU II the migraine index had decreased 40% and 39%, respectively, compared to BP (to 10.3 and 10.5 from 17.2), giving a statistical significance with p less than 0.01. The number of days with migraine headache was reduced 35 and 34%, respectively, during FU I and FU II to 5.1 and 5.2 from 8.0 days/28 days during BP. This reduction is significant too with p less than 0.05 and was responsible for almost the whole reduction of the index. Thus the severity of the pain was not much changed. On an individual basis 7 of the 25 patients obtained a very large reduction of migraine headache.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)