(Note to Jan Drew, who found Acupuncture to be ineffective
for her Headaches secondary to Depression and her Mood
Disorder: You MUST have a Brain for Acupuncture to help you
with Headaches. That is all.)
My own comments are in brackets []
1: BMJ. 2004 Mar 27;328(7442):744. Epub 2004 Mar 15. Related
Articles, Links
Acupuncture for chronic headache in primary care: large,
pragmatic, randomised trial.
[Look at those cool words, "large, pragmatic, randomised"!
You just don't see those words in many alt-med studies]
Vickers AJ, Rees RW, Zollman CE, McCarney R, Smith CM, Ellis
N, Fisher P, Van Haselen R.
Integrative Medicine Service, Biostatistics Service,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue,
NY, NY 10021, USA. [email hidden]
[Sloan-Kettering is a hot-bed of Hard-Core EOM]
OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of a policy of "use
acupuncture" on headache, health status, days off sick, and
use of resources in patients with chronic headache compared
with a policy of "avoid acupuncture." DESIGN: Randomised,
controlled trial. SETTING: General practices in England and
Wales. PARTICIPANTS: 401 patients with chronic headache,
predominantly migraine. Interventions Patients were randomly
allocated to receive up to 12 acupuncture treatments over
three months or to a control intervention offering usual
care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Headache score, SF-36 health
status, and use of medication were assessed at baseline,
three, and 12 months. Use of resources was assessed every
three months.
RESULTS:
[Yes, its all about results, eh Jan & Anth? Well, herein
Acupuncture delivers the goods]
Headache score at 12 months, the primary end point, was
lower in the acupuncture group (16.2, SD 13.7, n = 161, 34%
reduction from baseline) than in controls (22.3, SD 17.0, n
= 140, 16% reduction from baseline). The adjusted difference
between means is 4.6 (95% confidence interval 2.2 to 7.0; P
= .0002). This result is robust to sensitivity analysis
incorporating imputation for missing data. Patients in the
acupuncture group experienced the equivalent of 22 fewer
days of headache per year (8 to 38). SF-36 data favoured
acupuncture, although differences reached significance only
for physical role functioning, energy, and change in health.
Compared with controls, patients randomised to acupuncture
used 15% less medication (P = 0.02), made 25% fewer visits
to general practitioners (P = 0.10), and took 15% fewer days
off sick (P
= .2).
[Notice that the experiement, carried out by EOM, shows that
Acupuncture reduces office visits by 25%. Acupuncture COSTS
EOM money! Somehow, EOM censureship let this study slip out
and get published. Perhaps the PubMed website will be shut
down by EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOM]
CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture leads to persisting, clinically
relevant benefits for primary care patients with chronic
headache, particularly migraine.
Expansion of NHS acupuncture services should be considered.
[Obviously]
PMID: 15023828 [PubMed - in process]