Tension, migraine and cluster headaches are common encountering headaches with no underlying disease.

 

Tension Headache. The pain usually is described as dull tight, squeezing that has a gradually development. Scalp muscles may be tender when pressed. The pain located on the forehead or back of head, often on both sides of the head. Sometimes associated with neck pain. The frequency of pain is from occasional to daily. It lasts from 30 minutes to all day. The severity of pain various from mild to moderate, but sometimes severe. Stress can aggravate the pain, and can be relieved by rest and sleep.

 

Migraine.  According to the National Headache Foundation, as many as 28 million Americans suffer from migraine headache each year. Migraine can be caused by a variety of physical and environmental factors. These factors including changes in the weather, stress, diet, allergens, and menstruation. The pain is throbbing or pulsating in nature, or sometimes simply pressure. Patient is sensitive to light, sound and orders during pain and may associated with nausea or vomiting. It increased by exercise. The pain is usually located one side of the head, in forehead or temple. The pain is a chronic type and lasts several hours to several days. The severity of pain is moderate to severe, sometimes incapacitating. Migraine can be aggravated by physical activity and relieved by sleep.

 

Cluster Headache. The nature of pain is a drill-like and makes you feel like a hot poker in your eye. Eye may become red and teary, eyelid may drop and pupil contract. Nasal congestion or discharge and facial sweating may be accompanied. Pain causes extreme restlessness.

The pain usually locates behind or around the eye one side of the head. Cluster headache may occur one or several times a day that would last weeks or months. It often occurs at the same time each day and starting during sleep. The duration of pain can last a few minutes to several hours. The pain can be aggravated by lying down or by alcohol consumption. Sitting up might alleviate the pain.  

 

Treatments of head with no underlying lesion are various. Medication with analgesics seems is the most frequent used way to treat such a suffering disease. Patients many times encountered frustrations due to the treatment does not last longer or the side effects of the medications. Stress usually developed by the disturbance of lifestyle or by missing of works. It is estimated that only migraine headache sufferers lose more than 157 million workdays each year, leading to a loss of approximately 50 billion dollars per year due to medical expenses and absenteeism due to headache. Many of these remedies either do not work sufficiently or simply mask the underlying condition.   

 

Acupuncture is widely used in the management of headaches. It was found to be an alternative treating method for chronic no organic lesion headache applied as a single form of care, or as a part of a comprehensive treatment program. And it is recognized as the “ exceptional usefulness” treatment with “promising results”.

 

Literatures Review

Melchart D, et al. Acupuncture for recurrent headaches: a systemic review of randomized controlled trials. Cephalalgia 1999;19:779-786.

Research Center for Complementary medicine at Technische Universitat, Munich

 

OBJECTIVES: Sought to discover whether acupuncture is A) more effective than no treatment at all; B) more effective than Sham acupuncture; or C) as effective as other headache interventions.

MATGERIALS: Totally reviewed 22 studies. 15 involved migraine headaches (including 1 was conducted on children); 6 with tension headaches; and 1 with various headaches.

A total of 1,042 patients were examined. The average treatment period lasted 9 weeks and included 8 treatment sessions.

14 of the trails compared true acupuncture versus sham procedures. 5 trials compared acupuncture to various drug treatments. 2 trails compared acupuncture to physiotherapy, and 1 compared acupuncture with a behavioral program and a no-treatment group.

RESULTS: 9 of the 14 trials comparing true acupuncture and sham acupuncture in migraine and tension–type headache patients either “showed trends in favor of acupuncture” or “did significantly better than those in the sham acupuncture group”. Trials comparing acupuncture to other forms of headache intervention, displayed contradictory results. In one study, patients in a behavioral therapy group reported less medication use and less headache than the acupuncture group. In another study, patients receiving Metroprolol^TM  suffered more side effects but had lower frequency, duration and intensity of headaches.

CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture has a role in the treatment of recurrent headache. It seems to be relatively safe in the hands of qualified providers. Headache patients who want to try acupuncture should not be discouraged.

 

Liguori A, Petti F, Bangrazi A, Camaioni D, Pitari GM, Bianchi A, Nicoletti WE. Comparision of pharmacological treatment versus acupuncture treatment for migraine wihout aura—analysis of scociomedical parameters.

J Tradit Chin Med 2000;20(3):231-40

 

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture versus a variety of pharmacological therapies in treating migraines.

PATIENTS: 120 subjects with a history of migraine headaches were divided into two treatment groups of 60 patients each.

INTERVENTIONS: The first group was received acupuncture treatment, a maximum of 3 course of 10 treatments twice a week, with a one-week break between each course.  The second group of patients received drug therapy consisting of 2-3 treatments using a variety of pharmaceutical products. All patients received a thoroughly medical examination at the beginning of the study, 3, 6 and 12 months after treatment. Patients were also given a set of monthly time-sheets and asked to track several criteria for the month prior to the start of care, and for 12 months following the first course of treatment. The criteria includes the duration and severity of symptoms, general psychological and physical condition, side-effects and work absences.

RESULTS: Detailed data and analysis were contained in the published paper. In summary, statistical analysis of the groups found that acupuncture improved the symptoms of migraine without aura more significantly than any type of pharmacological therapy. Total symptom scores in the acupuncture group dropped more than 7,800 points from the start of study to six months after the first treatment. In comparison, scores in the drug therapy group dropped less than 4,500. 12 months after the beginning of the study, total symptoms scores for patients using drug therapy were still nearly twice those compared to subjects treated with acupuncture.

CONCLUSION: Patients given acupuncture experienced fewer migraine episodes, missed fewer days from work, and suffered no side effects compared to patients on conventional drug therapy. Acupuncture found to be more cost-efficient, estimating savings of hundreds of millions of dollars in private and social health expenditures if it were used to treat headaches alone instead of drugs.

 

** The study also indicate that, contrary to those who would like to pigeonhole acupuncture into the realm of pain relief, it can do much more than just treat a painful condition. If research is conducted professionally and treatment is applied properly, acupuncture’s reach can extend beyond the walls of a clinic or pain center to have a positive effect on a nation’s social and financial wee-being as well.