Migraines

The question. More than 100 medications are used to manage the disabling effects of migraine headaches, but none works 100 percent of the time. Might acupuncture be an alternative?

The study. It randomly assigned 302 adults with migraines to receive 12 sessions of acupuncture or fake acupuncture during eight weeks or to be put on a waiting list for treatment. The participants were not told that one treatment was fake but rather that the study would compare different types of acupuncture. Based on pain diaries kept for about six months, both the real and fake acupuncture groups had migraines on 2.2 fewer days a week than before the treatments, compared with 0.8 fewer days for the waiting list group. People who reported at least 50 percent fewer days with moderate or severe headaches totaled 51 percent in the acupuncture group, 53 percent in the fake acupuncture group and 15 percent of the waiting list.

Caveats. Improvements in the waiting list group may have been attributable to the psychological effect of being in a study. The needling involved in the fake treatment may have caused some beneficial physiological effects.

More information. Learn more at familydoctor.org and www.headaches.org.