Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22231691›Full record

Trial reportCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2012

Acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis: a randomized controlled trial.

Ying Li, Hui Zheng, Claudia M Witt, Stephanie Roll, Shu-guang Yu, Jie Yan, Guo-jie Sun, Ling Zhao, Wen-jing Huang, Xiao-rong Chang and 5 more

Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract readComparative StudyMulticenter StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00599586 (Randomized Controlled Trial of Treating Migraine With Acupuncture), which is not on this map. Cited by 86 papers, 15 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
86citing papers in PubMed, 15 pooled it
40.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT00599586 nacompletednot on this map

Randomized Controlled Trial of Treating Migraine With Acupuncture

TypeinterventionalSponsorChengdu University of Traditional Chinese MedicineRan2007 to 2009Enrolled480ConditionsMigraineArmsacupuncture
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

86 citing papers in PubMed, 15 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 167 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Utility of Acupuncture Therapy for Adult Chronic Daily Headache Prophylaxis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Pooled it
  10. Pooled it
  11. Pooled it
  12. Pooled it
  13. Pooled it
  14. Acupuncture for neuropathic pain in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017
    Pooled it
  15. Acupuncture for the prevention of episodic migraine.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016
    Pooled it
  16. Trial
  17. Trial
  18. Trial
  19. Trial
  20. Acupuncture for patients with mild hypertension: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2019
    Trial

26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Ying LiChengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Hui Zheng
Claudia M Witt
Stephanie Roll
Shu-guang Yu
Jie Yan
Guo-jie Sun
Ling Zhao
Wen-jing Huang
Xiao-rong Chang
Hong-xing Zhang
De-jun Wang
Lei Lan
Ran Zou
Fan-rong Liang
Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine · CNHunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine · CNCharité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAcupuncture is commonly used to treat migraine. We assessed the efficacy of acupuncture at migraine-specific acupuncture points compared with other acupuncture points and sham acupuncture.

methodsWe performed a multicentre, single-blind randomized controlled trial. In total, 480 patients with migraine were randomly assigned to one of four groups (Shaoyang-specific acupuncture, Shaoyang-nonspecific acupuncture, Yangming-specific acupuncture or sham acupuncture [control]). All groups received 20 treatments, which included electrical stimulation, over a period of four weeks. The primary outcome was the number of days with a migraine experienced during weeks 5-8 after randomization. Our secondary outcomes included the frequency of migraine attack, migraine intensity and migraine-specific quality of life.

resultsCompared with patients in the control group, patients in the acupuncture groups reported fewer days with a migraine during weeks 5-8, however the differences between treatments were not significant (p > 0.05). There was a significant reduction in the number of days with a migraine during weeks 13-16 in all acupuncture groups compared with control (Shaoyang-specific acupuncture v. control: difference -1.06 [95% confidence interval (CI) -1.77 to -0.5], p = 0.003; Shaoyang-nonspecific acupuncture v. control: difference -1.22 [95% CI -1.92 to -0.52], p < 0.001; Yangming-specific acupuncture v. control: difference -0.91 [95% CI -1.61 to -0.21], p = 0.011). We found that there was a significant, but not clinically relevant, benefit for almost all secondary outcomes in the three acupuncture groups compared with the control group. We found no relevant differences between the three acupuncture groups.

interpretationAcupuncture tested appeared to have a clinically minor effect on migraine prophylaxis compared with sham acupuncture.

trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT00599586.

Indexed as

Acupuncture TherapyAdultFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansMaleMigraine DisordersPain MeasurementQuality of LifeRetrospective StudiesSingle-Blind MethodTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

PMID22231691
PMCPMC3291669
OpenAlexW2129317162

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.