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Acupuncture shows promise for preventing episodic migraines (nihr.ac.uk)
2 points by DanBC on Jan 15, 2017 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments


Was there placebo control?

Pain is a notoriously good responder to suggestion.


From the article:

"This is also the case for reducing the number of migraine attacks by at least 50% a month, an outcome considered useful by patients, and one known to improve quality of life. Success rates were about 2 in 10 with doing nothing (waiting list), 4 in 10 with fake acupuncture, 4-6 in 10 with real acupuncture, and 5 in 10 with drugs. Acupuncture as practiced by an authentic method is possibly helpful, but to only about 1 in 10 people more than fake acupuncture."

It's hard to do sham acupuncture.




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