Efficacy of Acupressure on Intensity of Acute Migraine in Patients Attending an Emergency Department: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Migraine is a very debilitating disorder despite medication treatments. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of acupressure on severity of acute migraine headaches.

This randomized controlled trial was performed in 84 migraine sufferers attending the Emergency Department in Sari Buali Hospital, Iran 2019. Patients were randomly divided into three groups (n=28) of acupressure, control, and sham using Random Allocation Software. In intervention group, acupressure was applied to eight points for 8 seconds in each acupoint followed by two-second rest periods and this sequence was repeated for 3 minutes. The control group received only medical treatments and in sham group, acupressure was applied to eight unrelated points. Pain intensity was measured by Visual Analog Scale (VAS) before and 24 minutes after acupressure. Data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test.

Before the intervention, the median (Q3-Q1) pain intensity in intervention, sham, and control groups were 6, 5, and 5, respectively (P=0.175). After the intervention, the values were 1.5, 3, and 5 in intervention group, sham, and control groups, respectively (P<0.001). After the intervention, the mean score for pain intensity was significantly lower in intervention group than the sham (P<0.001) and control (P<0.001) groups. This rate was significantly lower in sham group than the control group (P<0.001).

Acupuncture alongside other treatments can be helpful in reducing the severity of pain caused by acute headaches.