The short-term analgesic effect of heat applied at acupoints to treat migraine headaches / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe any short-term analgesic effect of using heat stimulation at acupoints for treating migraine headaches without aura.Methods Totally 120 migraine patients were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group,each of 60.Both groups was given 5mg of Sibelium orally each night for 4 weeks.The observation group additionally received heat and pain stimulation at the Feng Chi,Shuai Gu,Yang Ling Quan,Wai Guan,Tai Yang and Yin Tang acupoints.The heat was in 0.3 s pulses at 54.5° with an inter-pulse interval of 10 s.Each acupuncture point was stimulated 5 times in rotation for a total of 20 min daily for 4 weeks.The frequency of headache attacks,their duration,their intensity rated using a visual analogue scale (VAS),accompanying symptoms and responses to a migraine-specific quality of life questionnaire (MSQ) were recorded before and after the treatment.Results After the treatment there was significantly greater improvement in the observation group compared to the control group in terms of headache frequency,headache duration,VAS ratings,and accompanying symptoms.The observation group also improved significantly more in terms of the average limitation dysfunction score,dysfunction score and emotion score on the MSQ.Moreover,the total effectiveness rate of the observation group (95.0％) was significantly higher than that of the control group (80.0％).During the treatment,no adverse reactions were found in terms of heart rate or blood pressure,and no abnormal manifestations such as infection,redness or swelling were observed at the stimulation sites.Conclusion Heat and pain stimulation at acupoints has a significant short-term analgesic effect on migraine without aura.Such treatment is safe and reliable,with few side effects.It provides a new treatment method for migraine patients and is worthy of clinical promotion and application.