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MIGRAINE AND HEADACHE
Larisa Turin has outstanding experience in treating chronic headache and migraine with Acupuncture. She offers treatments in her AcupunctureChicago clinic with locations in Chicago and Northbrook. Larisa Turin uses Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture to successfully treat patients with varying degrees and conditions involving chronic headache and migraine.
The effectiveness of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine in treating chronic headache and migraine has been proven experimentally and scientifically.
British Medical Journal published the results of the most recent study of the effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture in treating chronic headache and migraine.
Reuters’ correspondent from London (P. Reaney) reported on 3.15.2001 that the study confirmed that Acupuncture is a useful and cost-effective treatment for chronic headaches and migraine.
In one of the largest randomized studies to assess the effectiveness of the Traditional Chinese Medicine in treating headaches and migraine, scientists found that Acupuncture worked better than just conventional treatments alone in treatment of chronic headaches and migraine.
"People using Acupuncture had fewer headaches, less severe headaches and they used less health resources over the course of the following year," Dr Andrew Vickers, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said in an interview.
Patients who had been assigned Acupuncture plus standard treatment received up to 12 treatments over three months.
Initially there was not much difference between the two groups but at the end of the trial the scientists noticed a big change.
Patients receiving acupuncture had fewer days of headaches per year, used less medication, made fewer visits to their family doctors and took fewer days off sick than the other group.
There were not many side effects and Vickers and his colleagues also found that the treatment was cost effective.
"For severely affected patients, acupuncture reduced the severity and the frequency of their headaches to make a real difference in their lives," Vickers said.
Use of acupuncture in the therapy of
chronic daily headache.
[Article in Russian]
Naprienko MV, Oknin VIu, Kremenchugskaia MR, Filatova EG.
To determine efficacy of acupuncture (AC) in combined treatment of chronic
daily headache (CDHA), 90 patients with this disorder were studied, using
clinico-neurologic tests. Severity of patient's state was evaluated with
Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale, including scoring of disease
severity, global evaluation of the post treatment state dynamics and the
index of therapeutic efficacy. Headache intensity was assessed with VAS. A
state of functional activity of nociceptive and antinociceptive systems
was studied, using nociceptive flexor reflex (NFR). For treatment, the
patients were randomly divided into two clinically matched groups: group 1
received combined drug therapy, group 2--combined drug therapy and
additional acupuncture course. The results revealed high efficacy of AC
combined with drug therapy for CDHA treatment. Most efficient was use of
AC in patients with significantly reduced activity of antinociceptive
systems and presence of drug abuse allowing to reduce analgetics
withdrawal time. Besides, more pronounced clinical effect of AC was
obtained in patients with transformed migraine.
Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2003;103(10):40-4.
PMID: 14628586 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Acupuncture in
headache therapy.
[Article in German]
Weinschutz T.
Klinik fur Neurologie, Christian-Albrechts-Universitat, Niemannsweg 147,
D-24105 Kiel.
Acupuncture is now being increasingly used in the treatment of headache.
Acupuncture is a technique originating in Asia, from countries that have a
cultural background with a fundamentally different concept of disease and
therapy. Up to now, sustained application of acupuncture in Western
medicine has been impeded by the lack of a scientifically convincing
explanation of the mechanisms of action in terms of neurobiological
criteria. Acupuncture is being used empirically in the treatment of
migraine; clinical studies have been published. A definitive evaluation of
acupuncture based on well-founded clinical experimental studies has yet to
be made. The investigation was carried out in migraine patients who were
divided into two subgroups in a control group design with two different
stimulation techniques. The verum group was treated with the correct point
location, normal prick depth and elicitation of a needle sensation. The
control group received treatment at points that are far away from the
acupuncture points, using a superficial prick technique and without
eliciting a needle sensation. The effect of therapy was appraised by means
of headache diaries with subsequent interference statistical and
individual case analysis. In the present study comprising 81 patients, the
incidence of the attacks was significantly reduced in both subgroups. The
effect of acupuncture treatment was of comparable magnitude to that of the
beta-blocker metoprolol. The advantage of acupuncture treatment consists
in the lack of side effects such as gastrointestinal symptoms or an
increase in weight. A minor side effect was only reported in one case. In
the data analysis with the interference statistical method, verum
acupuncture was superior to the control in only one subgroup. The
possibility that the addition of further points (distant points) can
explain this effect on the basis of the hypothesis of a central modulation
of the migraine process is discussed. Acupuncture shows a sufficiently
pronounced and sustained therapeutic effect for its use to be considered
in a possible interval treatment of migraine.
Schmerz. 1996 Jun 17;10(3):149-55
PMID: 12799862 [PubMed]
Acupuncture
versus placebo versus sumatriptan for early treatment of migraine attacks:
a randomized controlled trial.
Melchart D, Thormaehlen J, Hager S, Liao J, Linde K, Weidenhammer W.
Department of Internal Medicine II, Center for Complementary Medicine
Research, Technical University, Kaiserstrasse 9, 80801 Munich, Germany.
dieter.melchart@lrz.tu-muenchen.de
OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether acupuncture is superior to placebo and
equivalent to sumatriptan for the early treatment of an acute migraine
attack. DESIGN: Randomized, partly double-blind (sumatriptan versus
placebo) trial. SETTING: Two hospitals in Germany (one specialized in
traditional Chinese medicine and one in the treatment of headache).
SUBJECTS: A total of 179 migraineurs experiencing the first symptoms of a
developing migraine attack. INTERVENTIONS: Traditional Chinese
acupuncture, sumatriptan (6 mg subcutaneously) or placebo injection. MAIN
OUTCOME MEASURE: Number of patients in whom a full migraine attack
(defined as severe migraine headache) within 48 h was prevented. In
patients who developed a migraine attack in spite of early treatment,
acupuncture and sumatriptan were applied a second time, whilst patients
initially randomized to placebo received sumatriptan. RESULTS: A full
migraine attack was prevented in 21 of 60 (35%) patients receiving
acupuncture, 21 of 58 (36%) patients receiving sumatriptan and 11 of 61
(18%) patients receiving placebo (relative risk of having a full attack
0.79 (95% CI, 0.64-0.99) for acupuncture versus placebo, and 0.78 (95% CI,
0.62-0.98) for sumatriptan versus placebo). Response to the second
intervention in patients who developed a full attack was better with
sumatriptan (17/31 patients who received sumatriptan twice and 37/46
patients who had had placebo first) than with acupuncture (4/31). The
number of patients reporting side-effects was 14 in the acupuncture group,
23 in the sumatriptan group and 10 in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: In
this trial acupuncture and sumatriptan were more effective than a placebo
injection in the early treatment of an acute migraine attack. When an
attack could not be prevented, sumatriptan was more effective than
acupuncture at relieving headache.
J Intern Med. 2003 Feb;253(2):181-8.
PMID: 12542558 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Acupuncture
in migraine: long-term outcome and predicting factors.
Baischer W.
Ludwig Boltzmann-Institut fur Akupunktur, Vienna, Austria.
Twenty-six patients (19 women, 7 men), who suffered from chronic migraine
according to IHS criteria, underwent acupuncture. In order to evaluate the
long-term stability of treatment effects, patients documented frequency,
duration, and intensity of attacks as well as analgesic intake in a
migraine diary, which was kept for 5-week periods before treatment,
immediately after treatment, and 3 years later. Data showed improvement
greater than 33% for 18 patients (69%) at post-treatment and 15 patients
(58%) at 3-year follow-up. Drug intake was reduced to 50% and did not
re-increase until follow-up. Treatment outcome was associated with
personality traits, but not depending on demographic data or severity of
migraine.
Headache. 1995 Sep;35(8):472-4.
PMID: 7591741 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Acupuncture
for headache
[Article in German]
von der Laage D.
Klinik fur Anasthesiologie, Medizinische Fakultat, RWTH Aachen.
Acupuncture is being increasingly used as one of the most important
non-pharmacological therapies in treatment of chronic pain. Chronic
headache, especially migraine and tension headache are diseases frequently
encountered. In their treatment acupuncture is a method with very few side
effects and is a remarkable alternative or addition in the whole concept
of treatment. Open and placebo-controlled studies have shown that
acupuncture reduces the frequency and intensity of headache in many
patients, as well as the use of drugs. The success rates achieved of about
50-85% are comparable to the results of other methods. In the case of
migraine, especially good results are archived by prophylactic treatment
with acupuncture during the pain-free period. The concept of treatment
depends on the basic rules of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
Selection of the acupuncture points is primarily determined by the pain
site. Long-term success could be confirmed by follow-up examinations six
to eighteen months after end of the therapy.
PMID: 12799832 [PubMed]
Acupuncture
for chronic headache in primary care: large, pragmatic, randomised trial.
Vickers AJ, Rees RW, Zollman CE, McCarney R, Smith CM, Ellis N, Fisher P,
Van Haselen R.
Integrative Medicine Service, Biostatistics Service, Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, NY, NY 10021, USA.
vickersa@mskcc.org
OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of a policy of "use
acupuncture" on headache, health status, days off sick, and use of
resources in patients with chronic headache compared with a policy of
"avoid acupuncture." DESIGN: Randomised, controlled trial.
SETTING: General practices in England and Wales. PARTICIPANTS: 401
patients with chronic headache, predominantly migraine. Interventions
Patients were randomly allocated to receive up to 12 acupuncture
treatments over three months or to a control intervention offering usual
care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Headache score, SF-36 health status, and use
of medication were assessed at baseline, three, and 12 months. Use of
resources was assessed every three months. RESULTS: Headache score at 12
months, the primary end point, was lower in the acupuncture group (16.2,
SD 13.7, n = 161, 34% reduction from baseline) than in controls (22.3, SD
17.0, n = 140, 16% reduction from baseline). The adjusted difference
between means is 4.6 (95% confidence interval 2.2 to 7.0; P = 0.0002).
This result is robust to sensitivity analysis incorporating imputation for
missing data. Patients in the acupuncture group experienced the equivalent
of 22 fewer days of headache per year (8 to 38). SF-36 data favoured
acupuncture, although differences reached significance only for physical
role functioning, energy, and change in health. Compared with controls,
patients randomised to acupuncture used 15% less medication (P = 0.02),
made 25% fewer visits to general practitioners (P = 0.10), and took 15%
fewer days off sick (P = 0.2). CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture leads to
persisting, clinically relevant benefits for primary care patients with
chronic headache, particularly migraine. Expansion of NHS acupuncture
services should be considered.
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