Title : Is auricular acupuncture effective in the treatment of headaches?
Abstract:
Introduction: A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. Headache is a non-specific symptom, which means that it has many possible causes. According to traditional Chinese medicine, headaches can be caused mainly by Liver syndromes but can also stem from Wind, Cold, Summer Heat, Humidity, Fire, Accumulation of Humidity and Mucous, and Blood stagnation.
Aim: The aim of this study is a retrospective investigation of the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture treatment on patients from a private general clinic and acupuncture office who had suffered from primary or secondary symptoms of headaches. In this investigation, we observed how many sessions were necessary to show relief from headaches using auricular acupuncture, and how each patient evaluated the effectiveness of this treatment. Furthermore we investigated the patient’s history of hospitalization for this particular problem, if he had other types of treatment for headaches before having undergone the auricular acupuncture, if he would recommend acupuncture treatment for headaches, and if he felt cured or not.
Method: Research of over 1500 patient records, who had been attended to and subsequently had undergone auricular acupuncture at the private and general medical clinic and acupuncture office of Dr. Huang Wei Ling in the City of Franca, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. From these records, 160 (10.66%) were selected on the basis of having had headache symptoms. Of these only 78 (48.75%) were successfully contacted by telephone and 9 (5.62%) were discarded after the telephone call because they claimed not having had headaches though this appeared on their records. A questionnaire was filled with the cooperation of the remaining 69 where data was collected concerning their headaches. This information was from patients who had treatment done and were not being treated at the time of this study. Selection was made of all patients who had headache symptoms as a primary reason for treatment, or these symptoms were secondary to other types of afflictions.
Results: The 69 patients (100%) selected had had headaches and remember that they had had them. Of these 68 (98.55%) considered their headaches as a primary symptom. One patient (1.45%) had two sessions of acupuncture. 10 patients (14.49%) had four sessions. 59 patients (84.06%) had more than four.
Conclusions: We can see from this study that a considerable amount of patients, 65 (94.20%) who had undergone auricular acupuncture for the treatment of headache symptoms, had improved. From this group 44 (63.78%) felt improvement in 4 or less sessions, whereas 21 (30.43%), felt improvement only after more than 4 sessions. Sixty-five (94.20%) of the patients evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture for their headaches as being excellent or good. Ten (14.49%) had a history of hospitalization for headaches, with 36 (52.17%) declaring previous neurological treatment. From the results we can also see that 55 (79.71%) of the patients considered that they had been completely cured or had significant improvement. Finally 65 (94.20%) ready to recommend it, we can conclude that auricular acupuncture is effective in the treatment of headaches.
