Efficacy of acupuncture in patients with migraine – the Acupuncture Randomised Trials (ART)

Linde K^1,2, Streng A¹, Reitmayr S¹, Hoppe A¹, Brinkhaus B², Becker-Witt C², Wagenpfeil S³, Weidenhammer W¹, Willich SN², Melchart D^1,4

¹Centre for Complementary Medicine Research, Department of Internal Medicine II, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

²Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany

³Institute of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

⁴Division of Complementary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Universitätsspital, Zürich, Switzerland

Objective

In a randomised, controlled multicentre clinical trial we investigated whether acupuncture is more effective compared to no acupuncture or minimal acupuncture in patients with migraine.

Materials and methods

Patients with migraine (according to the criteria of the International Headache Society; age 18–66 years) were randomised to treatment with semi-standardised acupuncture (AC), minimal acupuncture (MA) or to waiting list control (WL). Both AC and MA were administered by specialised acupuncture physicians in 18 outpatient centres and consisted of 12 sessions per patient over 8 weeks. Patients completed headache diaries for 4 weeks before randomisation, for 12 weeks after randomisation, and from week 21 to 24 after randomisation. Main outcome measure was the difference in headache days with at least moderate headache between the 4 weeks before and weeks 9–12 after randomisation.

Results

A total of 302 patients (88% female; age 43 ± 11 years) were included from April 2002 to January 2003. The final results will be presented at the conference.

Conclusion

The results of the study will aid in determining the efficacy of acupuncture treatment in migraine patients.

Top | Next: Patient reports on adverse events associated with acupuncture: results of a prospective national survey»