Acupuncture helps chronic
headache sufferers, study says
March 15, 2004
LONDON – Acupuncture is a
useful, cost-effective treatment for patients who suffer from chronic
headaches or migraine, American researchers said on Monday.
In one of the largest randomised studies to assess the effectiveness of the
ancient Chinese treatment, scientists found it worked better than just
conventional treatments alone.
"People using acupuncture had fewer headaches, less severe headaches and
they used less health resources over the course of the following year," Dr
Andrew Vickers, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said
in an interview.
The scientists compared acupuncture plus standard treatment to normal
therapy alone in 401 patients in England and Wales who suffered from
headaches several days each week. Their research is published online by the
British Medical Journal.
Patients who had been assigned acupuncture plus standard treatment received
up to 12 treatments over three months.
Initially there was not much difference between the two groups but at the
end of the year-long trial the scientist noticed a big change.
Patients receiving acupuncture had 22 fewer days of headaches per year, used
15 percent less medication, made 25 percent fewer visits to their family
doctors and took fewer days off sick than the other group.
There were not many side effects and Vickers and his colleagues also found
that the treatment was cost effective.
"For severely affected patients, acupuncture reduced the severity and the
frequency of their headaches to make a real difference in their lives,"
Vickers said.
Acupuncture was first used in China about 2,000 years ago, according to
Vickers. It involves inserting very fine needles into the skin at specific
points in the body. It is one of the most popular forms of complementary
medicine and has been shown to relieve nausea and pain.
German researchers have also said it could help women undergoing fertility
treatment to conceive.
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