EFFECTIVENESS OF ACUPUNCTURE FOR THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DAILY HEADACHE: A SHAM-CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL

Objectives: Acupuncture is a traditional method for the treatment of many pain conditions, but the effectiveness of acupuncture remains controversial on chronic daily headache (CDH). We evaluated the efficacy of real acupuncture (RA) at CDH compared with sham acupuncture (SA). Method: The patients with CDH were selected from a Neurology Department of University Hospital. A total of 56 patients with CDH were randomly assigned to two treatment groups. RA (n=34) and SA (n=22) groups were enrolled. The acupuncture treatment was terminated after 3 months. Results: We found significant differences when compared visual analog scale (VAS) scores after first and third month of treatment in RA and SA groups (p=0.007, p=0.021, respectively). The headache intensity was lower in RA group than SA group. The frequency of headache decreased in both groups. There was significant difference between the RA and SA groups for mean monthly number of headaches after first and third month of treatment (p=0.001, p=0.002, respectively). The effectiveness of acupuncture treatment was 69% in the RA group and 29% in the SA group. Conclusion: Our study confirmed that both the acupuncture and SA might be a beneficial and effective treatment for the CDH. However, the real acupuncture induced more effect on modulating intensity and duration of headache than in sham acupuncture.