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Published on: June 2, 2014
Multimodal chiropractic care for migraine: A pilot randomized controlled trial
Pamela M Rist1, Carolyn Bernstein2,3, Matthew Kowalski3
1Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Background:
Spinal manipulation may reduce migraine frequency, but effects of multimodal chiropractic care on migraine frequency have not been evaluated.
Methods:
We conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial comparing multimodal chiropractic care + enhanced usual care (MCC+) versus enhanced usual care alone (EUC) among adult women with episodic migraine. EUC was comprised of usual medical care and migraine education literature. MCC+ participants received 10 sessions of chiropractic care over 14 weeks. Primary aims evaluated feasibility of recruitment, retention, protocol adherence, and safety. Change in migraine days was a secondary aim.
Results:
Of 422 patients screened, 61 were randomized over 20 months. Fifty-seven (93%) completed daily migraine logs during the intervention, 51 (84%) completed final follow-up, and 45 (74%) completed all assessments. Twenty-four of 29 MCC+ participants (83%) attended > 75% of the chiropractic sessions. Ninety-eight non-serious adverse events were reported by 26 participants (43%) with 39 events among 11 EUC participants and 59 events among 15 MCC+ participants. MCC+ participants experienced greater reductions in migraine days (-2.9 days for MCC+ vs. -1.0 days for EUC, difference = -1.9; 95% confidence interval: -3.5, -0.4).
Conclusions:
Pre-specified feasibility criteria were not met, but deficits were remediable. Preliminary data support a definitive trial of MCC+ for migraine.
Trial Registration:
This study is registered at Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03177616).
