Use of acupuncture in the therapy of chronic daily headache

To determine efficacy of acupuncture (AC) in combined treatment of chronic daily headache (CDHA), 90 patients with this disorder were studied, using clinico-neurologic tests. Severity of patient's state was evaluated with Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale, including scoring of disease severity, global evaluation of the post treatment state dynamics and the index of therapeutic efficacy. Headache intensity was assessed with VAS. A state of functional activity of nociceptive and antinociceptive systems was studied, using nociceptive flexor reflex (NFR). For treatment, the patients were randomly divided into two clinically matched groups: group 1 received combined drug therapy, group 2 - combined drug therapy and additional acupuncture course. The results revealed high efficacy of AC combined with drug therapy for CDHA treatment. Most efficient was use of AC in patients with significantly reduced activity of antinociceptive systems and presence of drug abuse allowing to reduce analgetics withdrawal time. Besides, more pronounced clinical effect of AC was obtained in patients with transformed migraine.