Set Point Acupuncture for Migraines Using a Digital Assistant

Subjects will be recording daily headache activity on personal digital assistants (PDA's) for 12 weeks before and 12 weeks after 8 weeks of acupuncture intervention. MIDAS, HIT-6 and BDI-II measurements will be done at the beginning of the study (12 weeks pre-intervention), directly before the intervention, directly after, and 12 weeks post-intervention. Measurements will be compared before and after intervention. This is a follow-up to a successful earlier study when these same acupuncture points were used on subjects with chronic daily headache, the majority being migraine.

Inclusion criteria

• Male and female subjects between the ages of 21 years and 65 years of age
• Subjects with a history of migraine headaches for at least 12 months
• Subjects who have not received acupuncture for any medical condition in the past 6 months.
• A negative pregnancy test for childbearing females since some acupuncture points may be contraindicated in pregnancy. Pregnancy tests will be conducted at MMC.
• Subjects willing and able to use a PDA daily for data collection

Exclusion criteria

• Subjects who plan to receive acupuncture treatment for any other type of medical condition while enrolled in this protocol
• Subjects with the presence of organic pathology (i.e., brain tumor)
• Subjects who have the presence of a systemic disorder or illness, including serious psychiatric illness
• Subjects who began a new headache treatment less than two weeks before proposed enrollment date
• Subjects who are pregnant, lactating, or planning to become pregnant within 6 months
• Subjects that use alcohol on a regular basis
• Subjects that use recreational drugs
• Subjects that have a cardiac pacemaker
• Subjects that use analgesics on more than 10 days per month
• Subjects that exercise prophylactic headache treatment with drugs during the past 4 weeks