AI Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the impact of different non-pharmacologic placebo types on various outcomes for migraine patients to better understand treatment effectiveness.
- Researchers performed a meta-analysis of 50 trials, focusing on interventions like sham acupuncture, CBT, and various non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, analyzing their effects on migraine days and attack frequency.
- Results showed that sham acupuncture was the most effective in reducing migraine attacks, while sham rTMS significantly reduced headache days, highlighting the importance of understanding placebo effects in migraine treatment.
Article Abstract
Background: Placebo control plays an important role in evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. Specifying differential effects of various placebo controls on migraine prevention would be essential in the explanation of preventive treatment for migraine and the indirect comparison between different prophylactic therapeutics.
Objectives: To access the impact of different non-pharmacologic placebo types on different outcomes in migraine patients.
Methods: We searched PubMed, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials, Embase, and Web of Science databases from the date of creation to June 19, 2023. Randomized controlled trials of migraine that included sham intervention of acupuncture or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or non-invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation (nVNS) or repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) or transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) were conducted. The primary outcome was the migraine days, and the secondary outcomes were the number of migraine attacks, headache days, headache frequency, and responder's rate. Placebo effects were assessed using five individual placebos for network meta-analysis, using mean differences to measure the relative effect of pair-wise comparisons between interventions.
Result: A total of 50 trials with 4880 subjects were included. Twenty-seven trials were evaluated for low risk of bias. The results of indirect comparisons show that sham rTMS and sham tDCS had optimal and similar effects in reducing migraine days; sham acupuncture has the greatest effect on reducing the number of migraine attacks and relieving headache frequency; sham rTMS had a highly significant advantage in reducing headache days compared with the other placebo controls.
Conclusion: Based on the network meta-analysis results, we found that sham acupuncture had the greatest effect on migraine prophylaxis. The strong placebo effect of sham acupuncture should be considered when assessing the therapeutic effect.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13760-023-02460-2 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!