ACUPUNCTURE & TREATMENT OF TENSION HEADACHE

A Cochrane database review of evidence suggests that a course of acupuncture consisting of at least six treatments can be a valuable treatment option for people with frequent tension-type headache.

The international author team included 12 trials with 2349 adults in an updated review. They highlighted two large trials which observed that acupuncture, when added to usual care (pain-killers) at onset of headache, resulted in a reduction of headache frequency of 50% or more for 48% of participants – as compared to 17% with those who did not receive acupuncture.

When compared with sham acupuncture (six trials in total), headache frequency halved in 52% of participants receiving acupuncture compared with 43% receiving sham.

One large trial with 400 participants showed that the effect of acupuncture were still present six months after treatment.

Acupuncture for the prevention of tension-type headache. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Apr 19;4:CD007587

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27092807