SynthesisEuropean journal of neurology2025
Acupuncture Versus Standard Medical Care in the Prophylactic Treatment of Migraine: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in European journal of neurology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Non-Pharmacological Treatments of Migraine: Current Evidence and Clinical Practice.Current pain and headache reports · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough innovative pharmacological therapies for migraine prevention are now available, they may not be suitable or effective for all patients due to concerns about tolerability and the varying complexity of the underlying condition. This study systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed acupuncture's effects on migraine prophylaxis compared to standard medical care, focusing on study heterogeneity and issues related to sham interventions.
methodsFollowing the PRISMA guidelines and using the PICO model, the study searched PubMed, Scopus, CNKI, and VIP database from December 1965 to September 2024. Studies evaluating acupuncture's clinical efficacy for migraine prophylaxis, including clinical trials, observational studies, case series, and case reports, were considered. An additional search was conducted on the clinicaltrials.gov database from the beginning of indexing up to September 2024 to include ongoing studies. Quality control and bias assessment were performed. Primary outcomes focused on acupuncture's efficacy and safety versus pharmacological treatments in reducing migraine frequency and intensity. The impact on patients' quality of life was also evaluated.
resultsAt the end of the selection process, 15 studies were eligible. Acupuncture showed no statistically significant difference as a prophylactic treatment for migraine in reducing the frequency of migraine days or pain intensity but did reduce the use of analgesics while improving patients' quality of life.
conclusionCurrent evidence supports acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy in migraine prophylaxis, but challenges such as protocol heterogeneity, dropout biases, the complexities of sham-controlled trials, and the lack of comparison data with newer innovative treatments not yet considered warrant further research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.