Has anyone used accupunture to treat cluster headaches - and, if so, with what results.

thanks,

Joe W.

For those of us that have tried it, we have had no change in the cluster headaches, BUT, it has helped with some of the remedial problems CAUSED by the tensing up for the actual cluster hits.

Chuck

I agree that the results reported here have been very uninspiring - I can remember 1 person who claimed results (sorta) after a long, expensive relationship with an accupuncturist.  Dozens of others found no relief.

A slightly different approach is myofascial therapy - which in one study was found to be reasonably effective for cluster headaches.  Myofascial (aka trigger point therapy) has some similarities to accupuncture, though the theories are quite different. Myofascial work is focused on knots or lesions (trigger points) in muscles, which can refer pain to other structures. It is plausible that such knots in the face, jaws, neck and shoulder would refer pain to the trigeminal nerve, making it less stable.

These points can be measured with devices like an EMG (electromyogram), they can be observed on biopsy/autopsy and often by a trained therapist, they are extremely tender when pressed, and they tend to replicate symptoms when pressed.

Another good thing about myofascial therapy is that after a few sessions with a massage therapist (or even with a how-to book), it is possible for a person to find and deactivate many trigger points on their own.


Quote:

Head Face Med. 2008 Dec 30;4:32.    Myofascial trigger points in cluster headache patients: a case series.    Active myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) have been found to contribute to chronic tension-type headache and migraine. The purpose of this case series was to examine if active trigger points (TrPs) provoking cluster-type referred pain could be found in cluster headache patients and, if so, to evaluate the effectiveness of active TrPs anaesthetic injections both in the acute and preventive headache's treatment. Twelve patients, 4 experiencing episodic and 8 chronic cluster headache, were studied. TrPs were found in all of them. Abortive infiltrations could be done in 2 episodic and 4 chronic patients, and preemptive infiltrations could be done in 2 episodic and 5 chronic patients, both kind of interventions being successful in 5 (83.3%) and in 6 (85.7%) of the cases respectively. When combined with prophylactic drug therapy, injections were associated with significant improvement in 7 of the 8 chronic cluster patients. Our data suggest that peripheral sensitization may play a role in cluster headache pathophysiology and that first neuron afferent blockade can be useful in cluster headache management.

In this study, they used injections to deactivate the trigger points. There aren't many physicians in the US that are trained to do that, but massage therapists have non-invasive methods to deactivate.

I am a certified acupuncturist and I can tell you it doesnt work for CH. It helps muscle tension around the neck and shoulders area but it does not do anything for the headaches themselves nor the cycle.

monty wrote on Mar 10^th, 2009 at 2:47am:

These points can be measured with devices like an EMG (electromyogram), they can be observed on biopsy/autopsy and often by a trained therapist, they are extremely tender when pressed, and they tend to replicate symptoms when pressed.

Flo, I am confused by what you said above. Biopsy is when a piece of tissue is surgically removed as sample. Autopsy is the surgery done on a dead body to determine the cause of death. I cant see how they can be used to measure pain or replicate symptoms ?

Quote:

Biopsy is when a piece of tissue is surgically removed as sample. Autopsy is the surgery done on a dead body to determine the cause of death. I cant see how they can be used to measure pain or replicate symptoms ?

The pain/replication of symptoms is only in living, responding individuals - sorry if I was not clear. I wrote that around 3:00 this morning.

For example, an active trigger point on the face (dysfunctional muscle fibers and associated nerves) may be referring pain to the eye or sinuses, and pressing on that trigger point intensifies the pain in the eye or sinus. Deactivating the trigger point (using injections, massage technique, etc) typically brings about improvement of the symptoms.  I have sometimes been able to abort occular migraines in a minute or two by deactivating such points in the cheek/nose area; normally, my occular migraines last half an hour or more.

My other point was: the trigger points involve an anatomical change in the muscle - there is a particular type of knotting and swelling, some muscle fibers are hyper-stretched, some are flaccid or compressed.  This is something that can be seen by removing the tissue (they have been observed in both biopsy and necropsy) or with the proper imaging techniques. Trigger points also generate 'muscle endplate noise' when the muscle group is at rest, along with other oddities that can be detected with electromyograms. To summarize that point - there is a medical explanation for this type of therapy... it is not completely understood, but it is established in a rational framework of anatomy and physiology.  

I've tried acupuncture.  It didn't help stop or reduce the pain.  The person I went to see did work with me on ways to try to handle the pain.

I've been fighting this thing for over 5 years now.  Tried all kinds of meds, all kinds of "alternative" treatments. The best I have been able to do is simply trying to cope with the pain when it hits.

In my search for a "cure", I tried accupuncture for about 6 months, not one bit of help.  Sorry!

Ray