Acupuncture for migraine without aura: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Area of Science:

• Integrative Medicine
• Neurology
• Evidence-Based Healthcare

Background:

• Migraine without aura (MWoA) significantly impacts patients' quality of life.
• Acupuncture is a widely used complementary therapy for migraine management due to its analgesic properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically evaluate the therapeutic and preventive efficacy of acupuncture for MWoA.
• To assess the safety profile of acupuncture in MWoA treatment and prevention.

Main Methods:

• A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing acupuncture to oral medication or sham acupuncture.
• Searched nine electronic databases and included studies with a clinical diagnosis of MWoA.
• Primary outcomes included migraine frequency and number of migraine days; secondary outcomes included VAS score and effective rate.

Main Results:

• Acupuncture showed a significant advantage over medication in reducing migraine frequency and VAS scores, with a higher effective rate.
• Compared to sham acupuncture, acupuncture also significantly decreased migraine frequency and VAS scores.
• Acupuncture was associated with fewer adverse events than medication, suggesting better tolerability.
• The quality of evidence for the included studies was predominantly low to very low, limiting confidence in the findings.

Conclusions:

• Acupuncture may offer a safer alternative to medication for MWoA treatment and prophylaxis.
• The overall effectiveness of acupuncture for MWoA remains uncertain due to low-quality evidence.
• Further high-quality randomized controlled trials are necessary to confirm the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for MWoA.