Acupuncture for Migraine Headaches?

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"Objective: To determine the effects of ..'acupuncture] on headache, health status, days off sick...compared with a policy of 'avoiding] acupuncture'.

"Setting: General practices in England and Wales.

"Participants: Four hundred and one patients with chronic headache, predominantly migraine.

"Interventions: Patients were randomly allocated to receive up to 12 acupuncture treatments over 3 months or to a control intervention offering usual care...

"Results: Headache score at 12 months...was lower in the acupuncture... 'by 34%] than in controls.  Patients in the acupuncture group experienced the equivalent of 22 fewer days of headache per year...compared with controls 'no acupuncture patients,] patients 'receiving acupuncture] used 15% less medication, made 25% fewer visits to general practitioners...

"Conclusions: Acupuncture for chronic headache improves health-related quality of life at a small additional cost." The study also referred to reports in the British Medical Journal.

Acupuncture for Migraine Headaches? Bibliography

Headache, vol. 44, 2004. No authors were listed, but references were made to the British Medical Journal, vol. 328, 2004, by Vickers, Rees, Zollman, Van Haselen, et al.