How Acupuncture Can Be Used to Treat Headaches
More than 45 million Americans (one in six) suffer from chronic headaches according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Most of these people use medications to treat their pain, with varying degrees of success. Increasingly, some of these people are turning to acupuncture, which has been used to relieve headaches for thousands of years.
Headaches can be divided into three basic categories, tension, migraine and cluster. Tight muscles in the head, neck, and/or scalp cause tension headaches. Vascular (blood vessel) problems provoke migraine headaches, which are severe headaches persisting for several hours to several days. Migraines can affect one or both sides of the head and are often accompanied by light or sound sensitivity, nausea, vomiting and other unpleasant sensations. Intense one-sided pain centered by the eye or temple characterizes cluster headaches, which can last for two hours and may recur several times daily. Acupuncture can effectively treat all three types.
Acupuncture has been used to treat headaches for centuries and in 1997 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggested its efficacy in its Consensus Statement. Duke University researchers reviewed 31 studies and found acupuncture to be more effective than medication in reducing the severity and frequency of chronic headaches. Each reviewed study was a randomized, controlled trial and was at least four weeks in length. In total, the studies included almost 4,000 patients with migraines, tension and other chronic headaches. Sixty two percent of the acupuncture patients reported headache relief compared to only forty five percent of people using medications. [1]
In general, there is very little good research about acupuncture’s efficacy treating headaches. In their 1997 Consensus statement, the NIH advised that “acupuncture may be effective as an adjunct therapy, an acceptable alternative, or as part of a comprehensive treatment program. But…there is less convincing scientific data.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews examined the best studies for acupuncture as a treatment for tension headaches in 2009. They analyzed the findings from 11 randomized trials with 2317 subjects that compared acupuncture with control or “sham” (placebo) acupuncture. They found:
- Two studies demonstrating that patients who received acupuncture in addition to standard care had fewer headaches.
- Five studies demonstrated slightly better effects in patients who received true acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture.
- Three of the four studies comparing acupuncture with physiotherapy, massage, or relaxation had methodological shortcomings. Although their findings were difficult to interpret, but acupuncture appeared to have slightly better results than these other therapies.
Overall, the Cochrane concluded that acupuncture could be a valuable option for patients suffering from frequent tension headaches.[2]
The number of acupuncture sessions required varies from patient to patient, largely depending on the severity and chronicity of their pain. Although some people have symptom relief after one treatment, these benefits are usually transient. Most people, however, begin experiencing relief after five or six visits.
[1] Sun Y and Gan TJ. Acupuncture for the Management of Chronic Headache: A Systemmatic Review. Anesthesia and Analgesia 2008; 107 (6): 2038-2047.
[2] Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, et al. Acupuncture for tension-type headache.Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2009;(1):CD007587.