Effects of acupuncture on mental health of migraine patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Zhao Li; Jie Feng; Shao Yin; Xin Chen; Qicheng Yang; Xu Gao; Deya Che; Li Zhou; Hui Yan; Yue Zhong; Fengya Zhu

doi:10.1186/s12906-023-04103-8

Effects of acupuncture on mental health of migraine patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BMC Complement Med Ther. 2023 Aug 4;23(1):278. doi: 10.1186/s12906-023-04103-8.

Authors

Zhao Li^#¹, Jie Feng^#¹, Shao Yin¹, Xin Chen², Qicheng Yang³, Xu Gao¹, Deya Che⁴, Li Zhou⁴, Hui Yan⁴, Yue Zhong⁴, Fengya Zhu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.
² Acupuncture and Tuina School, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.
³ Department of Medical Information Engineering, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.
⁴ Zigong First People's Hospital, Zigong, China.
⁵ Zigong First People's Hospital, Zigong, China. notfounds@foxmail.com.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Migraine is a neurological disease characterized by moderate to severe headache and various neurological symptoms. It is often cause mood and anxiety disorders that can seriously affect quality of life. Acupuncture has been claimed to have a role in treating neuropsychiatric disorders and is becoming increasingly popular. However, it remains unclear whether current evidence is sufficient to support acupuncture in improving mental health in migraine patients.

Objectives: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the effect of acupuncture on the management of pain and mood disorders in patients with migraine.

Methods: We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wan Fang Data Knowledge Service Platform for reports, conferences and academic papers published before January 1, 2022. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including acupuncture, sham acupuncture and medication for migraine were included. Stata 16.0 software and Cochrane RoB2.0 were used for data processing and migration risk analysis.

Result: Thirteen randomized controlled trials containing 1766 migraine patients were included in the present study, the results showed that compared with sham acupuncture and medication, acupuncture seemed to have advantage in improving SAS (WMD: -5.64;95% CI: -10.89, -0.39; p = 0.035) and SDS (WMD: -4.65; 95% CI: -9.25, -0.05; p = 0.048) in migraine patients. And it seems to be more effective in improving MH (SMD: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.19, 1.35; p = 0.009), VAS (SMD: -1.06; 95% CI: -1.73, -0.4; p = 0.002;) and MSQ (WMD: 4.76; 95% CI: 2.36, 7.15; p < 0.001) than sham acupuncture and medication.

Conclusion: The present results suggest that, compared with Western medicine and sham acupuncture, acupuncture seems to be able to effectively improve anxiety and depression in migraine patients.And it may be more effective in improving SF36-mental health, VAS and MSQ than shame acupuncture or Western medicine. The results of this study need to be verified by higher quality RCTs.

Keywords: Acupuncture; Mental health; Meta analysis; Migraine; Quality of life.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Acupuncture Therapy* / methods
Humans
Mental Health
Migraine Disorders* / therapy
Pain
Quality of Life
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic