Trial reportHeadache2026
Acupuncture for acute treatment of migraine without aura: A randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in Headache, 2026. 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
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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.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the immediate analgesic efficacy of acupuncture in acute migraine without aura.
backgroundPatients with acute migraine without aura require prompt relief from headache. Acupuncture has the potential to provide rapid pain relief; however, its analgesic efficacy warrants further validation.
methodsWe designed a single-blind, sham-controlled, randomized controlled trial and randomly allocated 80 patients with acute migraine without aura to the real acupuncture or the sham acupuncture group at a 1:1 ratio. Both groups received 10 min of real acupuncture or nonpenetrating blunt needling. The primary outcome was the analgesic response rate of patients at 10 min.
resultsThis trial was conducted at the Second Affiliated Hospital, Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine from January 2023 to December 2024. All 80 patients provided complete data. At the primary end point of 10 min, the analgesic response rate was 92.5% (37 of 40) in the real acupuncture group compared to 12.5% (5 of 40) in the sham acupuncture group, with a between-group difference of 80.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 64.4%-95.6%; p < 0.001). The real acupuncture group also demonstrated higher response rates from 2 to 8 min (differences ranging from 27.5% to 75.0%, all p < 0.05). At 1 min, the difference was 12.5% (95% CI, -0.2% to 25.2%; p = 0.995). Regarding pain intensity, the real acupuncture group exhibited a greater reduction in pain visual analog scale scores compared to the sham acupuncture group starting from 1 min (mean difference: -1.0; 95% CI, -1.3 to -0.6; p < 0.001) and peaking at 10 min (mean difference: -2.6; 95% CI, -3.0 to -2.2; p < 0.001). For accompanying symptoms, the real acupuncture group showed significantly lower scores for nausea/vomiting at 10 min (median [interquartile range (IQR)] 0.0 [0.0-1.0] vs. 1.0 [0.0-2.0]; p = 0.006), whereas no significant differences were observed for photophobia/phonophobia (median [IQR]: 0.0 [0.0-1.0] vs. 0.5 [0.0-2.0]; p = 0.098). No adverse events were observed during the trial.
conclusionThe results of this study demonstrate that acupuncture can rapidly alleviate headache and accompanying symptoms in patients with acute migraine without aura attacks within 10 min, with the analgesic effect of the real acupuncture group being significantly superior to that of the sham acupuncture group. Future trials are needed to verify the reliability and generalizability of our findings.
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