Clinical trial NCT03250754: Treatment of Headache Disorders With Acupuncture: Observational Study: OBSERVATIONAL STUDY (HDACU)
Official title: Treatment of Headache Disorders With Acupuncture: Observational Study (HDACU)
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Chronic Headache Disorder
Keywords: Acupuncture
Migraine
Tension-type headache
Lead sponsor: Hospital Son Llatzer
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-08-16
Enrollment: 482
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients with headache disorder, which did not respond to conventional treatment for at least 6 months, referred to the Pain Service Unit were examined to ascertain their eligibility.

Brief summary: Headache disorders (HDs), which are characterized by recurrent headache, constitute a public-health problem of enormous proportions, with an impact on both the individual sufferer and society. The stated goals of long-term headache treatment are to reduce the frequency, severity, and disability associated with acute attacks; decrease the reliance on poorly tolerated, ineffective, or unwanted acute pharmacotherapies; and avoid acute headache medication escalation. There is risk for adverse events, leading some patients to refuse prophylactic therapy. Acupuncture is widely used for the treatment of headaches and it may be applied as a single modality as well as part of a more complex treatment program. The objective of this study will be to investigate whether acupuncture in routine clinical practice ((Real World Data) is more effective than treatment of acute migraine attacks or routine care only in reducing headache frequency.

Detailed description: A Cochrane systematic review published in 2016 concluded that acupuncture was at least as effective as, or possibly more effective than, preventive drug treatment for migraine prophylaxis with fewer side effects compared with conventional treatments . Cochrane reviews of tension-type headache conclude that acupuncture could be a valuable non-pharmacological tool in patients with frequent, episodic, and chronic tension-type headache.

An observational, cross-sectional study, according to the STROBE guide, was conducted. The study was carried out in the Pain Service Unit of the Son Llàtzer University Hospital of Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Between January 2010 and December 2015, data from patients with chronic refractory headache, which did not respond to conventional treatment for at least 6 months, referred to the Pain Service Unit were examined to ascertain their eligibility.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Clinical diagnosis of headache (\> 12 months) and at least two headaches per month (Physicians classified patients according to the criteria of the International Headache Society to differentiate between patients with, tension-type headache, trigeminal autonomic cephalgias (cluster headache and Horton's headache), trigeminal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, cervicogenic headache and post-surgery headache).
* Age ≥ 18 years.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Headache caused by somatic diseases such as hypertension, meningioma or meningoencephalitis
* Onset of headache less than 1-year before.
* acupuncture treatment less than 1-year before

Primary outcomes:
measure: Number of days with headache per month
timeFrame: At the end of the third month of treatment
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain
timeFrame: at baseline, 1 month and 3-months
measure: The change of headache days after 1 month
timeFrame: at baseline, 1 month and 3-months
measure: Assessment of satisfaction with treatment
timeFrame: at baseline, 1 month and 3-months
measure: Sleep quality assessment
timeFrame: at baseline, 1 month and 3-months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Palma
country: Spain
facility: Son Llàtzer University Hospital
state: Balearic Islands
Study officials:
affiliation: Son Llatzer University Hospital
name: Javier Mata, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Headache Classification Subcommittee of the International Headache Society. The International Classification of Headache Disorders: 2nd edition. Cephalalgia. 2004;24 Suppl 1:9-160. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2982.2003.00824.x. No abstract available.
citation: Garcia-Escriva A, Asensio-Asensio M, Lopez-Hernandez N, Gonzalez-Aznar OJ, Oliver-Navarrete C, Alvarez-Sauco M, Pampliega-Perez A. [Health care activity in a headache-specific clinic]. Rev Neurol. 2004 Sep 1-15;39(5):401-5. Spanish.
citation: Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Fei Y, Mehring M, Vertosick EA, Vickers A, White AR. Acupuncture for the prevention of episodic migraine. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Jun 28;2016(6):CD001218. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001218.pub3.
citation: Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Fei Y, Mehring M, Shin BC, Vickers A, White AR. Acupuncture for the prevention of tension-type headache. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Apr 19;4(4):CD007587. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007587.pub2.
citation: Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, Lewith G, MacPherson H, Foster NE, Sherman KJ, Witt CM, Linde K; Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration. Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2012 Oct 22;172(19):1444-53. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3654.
citation: Wang LP, Zhang XZ, Guo J, Liu HL, Zhang Y, Liu CZ, Yi JH, Wang LP, Zhao JP, Li SS. Efficacy of acupuncture for acute migraine attack: a multicenter single blinded, randomized controlled trial. Pain Med. 2012 May;13(5):623-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2012.01376.x. Epub 2012 Apr 26.
citation: Li Y, Liang F, Yang X, Tian X, Yan J, Sun G, Chang X, Tang Y, Ma T, Zhou L, Lan L, Yao W, Zou R. Acupuncture for treating acute attacks of migraine: a randomized controlled trial. Headache. 2009 Jun;49(6):805-16. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2009.01424.x. Epub 2009 Apr 27.
citation: Yang CP, Chang MH, Liu PE, Li TC, Hsieh CL, Hwang KL, Chang HH. Acupuncture versus topiramate in chronic migraine prophylaxis: a randomized clinical trial. Cephalalgia. 2011 Nov;31(15):1510-21. doi: 10.1177/0333102411420585. Epub 2011 Oct 21.
citation: Coeytaux RR, Kaufman JS, Kaptchuk TJ, Chen W, Miller WC, Callahan LF, Mann JD. A randomized, controlled trial of acupuncture for chronic daily headache. Headache. 2005 Oct;45(9):1113-23. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2005.00235.x.
citation: Wonderling D, Vickers AJ, Grieve R, McCarney R. Cost effectiveness analysis of a randomised trial of acupuncture for chronic headache in primary care. BMJ. 2004 Mar 27;328(7442):747. doi: 10.1136/bmj.38033.896505.EB. Epub 2004 Mar 15.
citation: Witt CM, Reinhold T, Jena S, Brinkhaus B, Willich SN. Cost-effectiveness of acupuncture treatment in patients with headache. Cephalalgia. 2008 Apr;28(4):334-45. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2982.2007.01504.x.
citation: Vandenbroucke JP. When are observational studies as credible as randomised trials? Lancet. 2004 May 22;363(9422):1728-31. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16261-2. No abstract available.
citation: Concato J, Shah N, Horwitz RI. Randomized, controlled trials, observational studies, and the hierarchy of research designs. N Engl J Med. 2000 Jun 22;342(25):1887-92. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200006223422507.
citation: von Elm E, Altman DG, Egger M, Pocock SJ, Gotzsche PC, Vandenbroucke JP; STROBE Initiative. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies. Int J Surg. 2014 Dec;12(12):1495-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2014.07.013. Epub 2014 Jul 18.