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Related Experiment Videos

Acupuncture for idiopathic headache.

D Melchart1, K Linde, P Fischer

  • 1Centre for Complementary Medicine Research, Department of Internal Medicine II, Technische Universität, Kaiserstr. 9, Munich, Germany, 80801. Klaus.Linde@lrz.tu-muenchen.de

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
|May 2, 2001
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Acupuncture shows promise for treating headaches, outperforming sham treatments in many studies. However, more high-quality research is needed to confirm its effectiveness for primary headaches.

Area of Science:

  • Integrative Medicine
  • Neurology
  • Pain Management

Background:

  • Acupuncture is a common therapy for headaches.
  • Its effectiveness for primary headaches remains debated.
  • Evidence synthesis is needed to clarify its therapeutic value.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate acupuncture's efficacy against no treatment.
  • To compare acupuncture with sham (placebo) acupuncture.
  • To assess acupuncture's effectiveness relative to other headache interventions.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic review of randomized and quasi-randomized clinical trials.
  • Searches of major biomedical databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane).
  • Inclusion of trials comparing acupuncture with any control for primary headaches.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Twenty-six trials with 1151 patients were included.
  • Acupuncture was superior to sham treatment in 8/16 trials for migraine and tension-type headaches.
  • Results comparing acupuncture with other treatments were contradictory.

Conclusions:

  • Current evidence suggests acupuncture is valuable for idiopathic headaches.
  • The quality and quantity of evidence are not fully convincing.
  • Well-designed, large-scale studies are urgently needed to confirm effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.