Acupuncture could solve headache pain, Duke researchers say

[Celebration]

http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/biotech/story/4060971/

Are you one of the 65 million Americans who suffer from chronic headaches and are tired of the medication needed to treat them? Then try acupuncture.

.........snip............................

In a study published Monday, the Duke team says acupuncture is a more effective treatment for chronic headaches than medication, reducing both their severity and frequency. Some 65 million Americans suffer from some form of chronic headaches.

Believers in the ancient art of acupuncture won’t be surprised. But the Duke team, led by anesthesiologist Tong Joo Gan, said data demonstrates clearly the efficacy of acupuncture.

...........snip....................

The Duke team analyzed data from some 30 studies covering 4,000 patients. The studies included 17 for migraines, 10 for tension and four covering chronic headaches with multiple symptoms.

Among those were 17 comparing acupuncture with medication, and overall 62 percent of those receiving the treatment reported relief versus 45 percent of those taking medication.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. You mean something that has been around for thousands

of years really works?

What will the brain trust at Duke tell us next?

tires are round?

levers move things?

[salvorhardin]

2. Except it hasn't been around for thousands of years

Acupuncture, as practiced today, is largely a 20th C. invention.
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/08-10-08.html#feature and
http://drspinello.com/altmed/acuvet/acuvet_files/frame.htm (doesn't load properly in Firefox... use IE)

[HamdenRice]

4. Aw, jeez

That "skeptic's" "debunking" has been thoroughly "debunked."

If a person calls herself a "skeptic" is she allowed to make any preposterous, counter-factual, internally inconsistent claim and have fellow "skeptics" believe it?

<Sad answer: yes>

If I say I'm a skeptic and that I have "debunked" the "woo woo" idea that the moon is made of minerals, but instead is made of green cheese, would you believe that too?

[zazen]

3. how did they control for variable of human touch, which independently mitigates pain?

OK--I'm going out the door here and so haven't read the actual study (or meta-analysis), but I'm sure they considered the effect of simply paying attention to and touching the patient in pain as a variable, apart from the effect of acupuncture. I'm just not sure how they did it (they couldn't stick needles in the wrong place, could they? Or did they claim to do a healing touch intervention on a group of patients?)

I believe it's been best clinical practice for a few years now to simply touch some part of the patient (arm, elbow, hand) during outpatient surgery, for example, which I assume was based on some clinical studies, and the sheer psychological validation of having someone there to treat you while you're in pain, as opposed to giving you a pill for something that half of doctors would imply was in your head anyway, must have some pain relieving effect.So many people with chronic headaches--women, predominantly--are told it's stress and treated like they're malingering.

I'm not questioning acupuncture per se, and if it's an improvement over mood-altering, liver-damaging medications, I'm all for it. I just wonder how one controls for these other variables.

[Richard D]

6. Of course it's "anecdotal" . . .

. . . but I've treated a lot of people with acupuncture who were troubled with chronic headaches for decades. After a course of treatments many of them never had another one.

I am of the opinion that controlling all of the variables in an acupuncture study and in fact doing a real double-blind study using acupuncture is nearly impossible. It goes back to the idea the medicine is a "healing art". Some practitioners are going to be a lot better than others. Some have years of school and training, others (generally the MD variety) have a couple weekends.

The science and art of acupuncture, which btw is just one branch of Asian Medicine - most Licensed Acupuncturists know and use the other branches - will utilize different treatments for different people with the same Western diagnosis. I might see 5 patients with the same diagnosis, say migraines, and do 5 totally different treatments based on the way that the migraine presents, their body type, their other symptoms, emotional stuff, etc. However, when doing a "scientific study" the points chosen will be based on the diagnosis, not on the person.

[Warpy]

5. My first visit to an acupuncturist was great

I had a miserable headache, but that wasn't why I was there. The non English speaking doc came in and took one look at me and stuck a spike into my left ear. That headache was GONE in 10 minutes and it had been hanging on for several days! The interpreter then came in and told him what I'd come in for and he expressed amazement that I hadn't been complaining about the pain.

I've found acupuncture to be better on acute pain in my case, but other people have had great success with chronic pain treated by it.

Someday we should have an acupuncturist on staff in every ER to deal with patients whose primary complaint is pain. It would beat the hell out of having them wait hours in chairs or on a gurney for a doc to come in and prescribe. They'd still need to be worked up, but taking care of their pain ASAP would be a much more compassionate approach.

(and yes, I'm the original skeptic)