British doctors have found that acupuncture can reduce the number of days of migraine a person has a year, as well as reducing the amount of medication they need and days off work. The results of their study are published on the website of the British Medical Journal.
The study was designed to look at the use of acupuncture as an option for GPs prescribing treatment for migraines and tension-type headaches. GPs randomly offered their patients either standard treatment (medication and GP advice) or standard treatment plus acupuncture. Those who received acupuncture had up to 12 acupuncture sessions over the space of three months.
The doctors identified 401 people with chronic headache, most of them had migraines while the others had tension-type headaches. All the people were aged 18-65 years old and had an average of at least two headaches a month.
At the end of 12 months, people who had acupuncture in addition to standard treatment had 34 percent less severe headaches than people who only received standard treatment. Before treatment, the acupuncture group had a mean weekly headache score of 24.6 which fell to 16.2 after 12 months. The group that recieved only standard treatment had a weekly headache score of 26.7 before treatment and a score of 22.3 after 12 months.
During the 12-month study, people who had acupuncture in addition to standard treatment reported 15.6 days of headache during the four weeks before treatment and only 11.4 days of headache in four weeks at the end of the 12-month period. In contrast, those people who received standard treatment only reported 16.2 days of headache in the four weeks before treatment and 13.6 days of headache in four weeks at the end of the 12-month period.
These results mean that the people who recieved acupunture with standard treatment had 1.8 days less of headache every four weeks, when compared with those who did not have acupuncture. This works out as 21.6 days less of headache a year.
