Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Acupuncture reduced frequency and pain intensity of primary migraine or tension-type headaches

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

S N Willich

Dr S N Willich, Charité University Medical Centre, Berlin, Germany; stefan.willich@charite.de

QUESTION

In patients with primary headache, does acupuncture plus routine care improve outcomes more than routine care alone?

METHODS

Design:

randomised controlled trial (Acupuncture in Routine Care study).

Allocation:

concealed.

Blinding:

unblinded.

Follow-up period:

3 and 6 months.

Setting:

primary care setting in Germany.

Patients:

3404 patients ⩾18 years of age (mean age 44 y, 77% women based on 3182 patients) who had primary headache (headaches for >12 mo and ⩾2 headaches/mo). Patients with headache caused by somatic diseases (eg, hypertension, meningioma, or meningoencephalitis) were excluded.

Intervention:

immediate needle acupuncture administered in ⩽15 sessions …

View Full Text

Footnotes

  • Source of funding: health insurance companies (Techniker Krankenkasse, Betriebskrankenkasse, Handelskrankenkasse, and Innungskrankenkasse).