Clinical study of acupuncture at specific points of the Shaoyang meridians in the treatment of migraine

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical efficacy of acupuncture at specific points of the Shaoyang meridians in patients with migraine and the changes in cerebral blood flow velocity, to explore the specificity of meridian-point effects and the mechanism of acupuncture in the treatment of migraine, and thereby to provide a theoretical basis for clinical acupuncture treatment. METHODS: A randomized, controlled, single-blind design was used. Sixty migraine cases meeting the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group. The treatment group (30 cases) received acupuncture at specific points of the Shaoyang meridians, and the control group (30 cases) received acupuncture at non-meridian non-acupoint sites, 30 minutes per session, 5 sessions/week, for 4 weeks. Before and at the end of treatment, changes in the number of migraine attacks, attack severity, headache intensity, duration, accompanying symptoms, VAS score (visual analogue scale), Migraine-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MSQ) score, transcranial Doppler (TCD) blood flow velocity and other indicators were recorded in both groups to determine short-term efficacy; 1 month after the end of treatment, all clinical indicators except TCD were followed up to compare the long-term efficacy of the two groups. RESULTS: (1) Short-term efficacy: ① The total effective rate of the treatment group (80.00%) was significantly higher than that of the control group (37.93%), with a significant difference between the groups (P<0.01); ② in the treatment group, the number of headache attacks, duration, accompanying symptoms, attack severity, VAS score, MSQ score and headache intensity were significantly better after treatment than before (P<0.05); the between-group comparison after treatment showed that, except for the duration score, all other scores of the treatment group were better than those of the control group (P<0.05); ③ in the treatment group, the peak systolic velocity (V_p) of the main cerebral arteries improved in the before-after comparison for bilateral MCA (V_p), ACA (V_p), PCA (V_p), VA (V_p) and BA (V_p) (P<0.01); in the between-group comparison of V_p of the main arteries, except for bilateral ACA (V_p), RMCA (V_p) and LVA (V_p), bilateral PCA (V_p), RVA (V_p) and BA (V_p) showed significant differences (P<0.05). (2) Long-term efficacy: ① The total effective rate of the treatment group (93.33%) was higher than that of the control group (37.93%) (P<0.01); ② at 8 weeks after enrollment, the number of headache attacks, duration, accompanying symptoms, attack severity, VAS score, MSQ score and headache intensity in the treatment group were all better than before treatment (P<0.05), and the between-group comparison at 8 weeks showed that the treatment group was better than the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: (1) Acupuncture at specific points of the Shaoyang meridians and at non-meridian non-acupoint sites were both effective; in particular, acupuncture at the Shaoyang specific points Jiaosun, Waiguan, Yanglingquan and Qiuxu for migraine showed good clinical efficacy, with both short-term and long-term efficacy superior to the non-meridian non-acupoint control group, and is worthy of further promotion and application. (2) Acupuncture at specific points of the Shaoyang meridians can not only improve the clinical symptoms of migraine patients but also regulate the cerebrovascular vasomotor state and improve cerebral blood flow, with good efficacy in preventing migraine attacks and improving their frequency and severity. (3) Acupuncture at specific points of the Shaoyang meridians was clearly superior to non-meridian non-acupoint acupuncture in improving the quality of life of migraine patients.