Clinical Research On The Treatment Of Migraine With Tung Acupuncture

Clinical study on Treating Migraine with Tung AcupunctureObjective:To use the clinical experience of Professor Chiu Ya Chang in applying Master Tung’s Acupuncture to treat migraine and comparing its short term and long term outcome with the traditional acupuncture.To observe if the characteristic use of lesser needles and stimulation during treatment is able to produce the same treatment effect for needle fearing patients,and hence replace traditional acupuncture as an alternative treatment option for migraine.Methods:60 migraine patients were divided into 2 groups,30 of them in the treatment group were treated with Master Tung’s Acupuncture and 30 of them in the control group were treated with traditional acupuncture.The traditional acupuncture treatment uses acupoints:Ashi point(s),Sizhukong(SJ23),Shuaigu(GB8),Taiyang(Ex-HN-5),Fengchi(GB20),Hegu(LI4),Taichong(LV3),Zulinqi(GB41)as the primary acupoints;with the addition of secondary points Yanglinquan(GB34),Waiguan(SJ5).Neiguan(P6),Shuigou(GV26),Shenmen(HT7),Baihui(GV20)are added if patient shows symptoms associated with the Jueyin meridian;Touwei(ST8)is added if symptoms are associated with problems at the Yangming meridian;Tianzhu(BL10)if there are problems at the Taiyang meridian.For the acupoints mentioned above,needles are placed unilaterally for acupoints on the affected side of the head,while distant acupoints are placed bilaterally on the body.Master Tung’s Acupuncture Treatment uses:Shenguan(LE44),Cesanli(T77.22)and Cexiasanli(T77.23).Needles are placed on the other side of the body,in the opposite direction of the headache.Patients receive acupuncture treatment once a week,for 5 weeks as one treatment course.The clinical curative effect is based on the visual analogue scale(VAS),migraine rating scale and scoring system based on the symptoms.There are post treatment follow-up done 3,6 and 9 months later.Statistical analysis is done to evaluate the long term effectiveness of these treatments.Results:There is no statistical significance between both groups of the patients for the basic information(age,sex and duration of condition)before the treatment(P>0.05),hence making the results comparable between them.After the treatment,both groups have shown to reduce the scores of the visual analogue scale(VAS),the migraine rating scale,the TCM symptom rating scale,as well as all other indicators used within the migraine rating scale.The results for t test analysis showed that it is statistically significant(P<0.05)within both treatment groups to reduce the scores for the pain indicators used in migraine rating scale,thus indicating that both treatment methods can reduce the pain intensity,the frequency and the period of each migraine episode.The control group showed improvement in the following symptoms used within the TCM symptom rating scale:heavy headed,irritability,nauseous and or vomit,light sensitivity,purple lips,thirst,tongue and pulse,while the treatment group showed improvement in heavy headed,dizziness,irritability,nauseous and or vomit,light and sound sensitivity,cold intolerance,continuous sleeping hours,light sleep and pulse symptoms.However,with the exception of the frequency of migraine attacks,there are no statistical significance(P>0.05)from the results shown for the treatment group to have an advantage over the control group to reduce the pain intensity,the period of each migraine episode,the accompanying symptoms,the VAS score,the migraine rating score,as well as the TCM symptom rating score.The results post 3 months follow up for treatment group have shown more improvement with regards to reduction in light sensitivity and pain intensity than control group;both groups have increased treatment efficacy,reduced migraine frequency,nausea and or vomit,as well as total migraine rating score;treatment group showed improvement in dark lips and sleep quality.Results for post 6 month follow up in treatment group have shown a drop in short sleeping cycle than control group;control group has better complexion and less thirst,but is only more effective in showing lesser pain and frequency than treatment group.Both groups experience lesser bouts of nausea and or vomit,lighter lip colour and improved treatment efficacy.The post 9 month follow up showed that the VAS score,migraine frequency and overall treatment efficacy in treatment group is significantly better than control group;the treatment group has continued to see improvement in cold intolerance and short sleeping cycle;there was no significant improvement in symptoms noted in control group at this point of time.All in all,although there is recurrent increase in scores,an overall downward trend was seen in the indicators and the scores were lower than before treatment,indicating that acupuncture has long term effects.With the exception of nausea and or vomit,thirst,light sleep,tongue and accompanying symptoms,the other indicators showed a lower score in the treatment group than control group,suggesting the treatment potential of Master Tung’s Acupuncture.Master Tung’s Acupuncture has a long term effect which is better than traditional acupuncture in improving migraine frequency,VAS score,migraine rating score and overall treatment efficacy.In addition,there is evidence that Master Tung’s acupuncture can improve sleep quality in this study.Conclusion:The major advantage of Master Tung’s Acupuncture group of acupoints is that it has higher total efficacy in the treatment of headache than the traditional group of acupoints.The secondary advantage of Master Tung acupuncture is its effect in alleviating the accompanying symptoms of migraine,especially in the aspect of sleep disorder.Although Master Tung’s Acupuncture did not show particularly superior results than traditional acupuncture,we can still make use of its characteristic feature of using lesser needles with similar efficacy,which is more acceptable for Singaporeans as an acupuncture treatment plan,as well as a better option for people with fear of needles.