| Abstract: | Migraine is a common type of primary headache disorder.Patients suffer from a recurrent hours-lasting moderate to severe pain in a unilateral location.It brings great harm to patients' life quality.Epidemiological studies have shown that the lifetime prevalence of migraine is between 15% and 20% worldwide and about 8%to 13% in Asia.Currently, acupuncture is used in many countriesand has been proved as an effective therapy for migraine prophylaxis, that is, to reduce the frequency and number of migraine attack.The last Cochrane systematic review of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis published in 2011 concluded that acupuncture was effective and possibly more effective than prophylactic drug treatment, with fewer adverse effects.There are some controversies about the effect of acupuncture in reducing the intensity of migraine.According to the primary results of our current studies about acupuncture as prophylaxis for migraine and menstrualrelated migraine, not only the frequency and time of attacked, but also the intensity of pain could be effectively improved.Furthermore, studies also demonstrated that acupuncture could reduce and even interrupt a migraine attack in prodrome period.For acupoint selection, we highlighted the importance of the methodology of syndrome differentiation on meridian theory.Syndrome differentiation based on theories of traditional Chinese medicine was a foundation for efficacy and necessary to be complied when trying to reduce the impacts of inducing factors of migraine by acupuncture treatment. |
