MedWire News: People who suffer from chronic migraines may benefit from acupuncture to reduce the severity and frequency of their headaches, German study results show.

Lead researcher Dr Stefan Willich, from Charité University Medical Centre in Berlin, and team explain that previous studies assessing the benefits of acupuncture for patients with chronic headaches have produced conflicting results.

To investigate further, the team studied more than 15,000 people, aged an average of 44 years, who had suffered from migraines or tension-type headaches more than once a month for 1 year or longer.

Of these patients, 1613 were assigned to receive acupuncture in 15 sessions over 3 months in addition to usual care involving medications, while 1569 continued with usual care alone.

After 6 months, the researchers found that patients assigned to acupuncture reported significantly greater reductions in headache pain than those who continued with usual care.

Headache frequency also fell significantly in patients assigned to acupuncture, from 8.4 headache days over 3 months at the start of the study to 4.7 headache days over 3 months at the end.

In contrast, headache frequency remained almost constant, at nearly 8 headache days every 3 months, in patients assigned to usual care only.

Writing in the journal Cephalalgia, Dr Willich and team conclude: "Our study has shown that treating patients with headache in routine primary care in Germany with additional acupuncture resulted in a clinically relevant and persistent benefit.

"Therefore, acupuncture should be considered a viable option for patients with headache."