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  4. Vol 7, Issue 2, 2025

Meta-analysis of Acupuncture Treatment for Tension-type Headache

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DOI: 10.23977/medcm.2025.070202 | Downloads: 5 | Views: 399

Author(s)

Jingyi Li 1,2, Lei Shi 1,2

Affiliation(s)

1 First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
2 National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin, China

Corresponding Author

Lei Shi

ABSTRACT

The objective of the study is to systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of tension-type headache. The method applied in this paper is  searched CNKI, Chongqing VIP Database, Wanfang Database, CBM, Pubmed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase, and the literature was included according to the inclusion criteria of this study, and the risk bias was evaluated. We use Stata17 software to combine and analyze all the data to evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment for tension-type headaches. As a result, a total of 20 articles were included, and the meta-analysis results showed that acupuncture has advantages in improving the total effective rate of tension-type headache treatment, reducing the degree of headaches (VAS) and frequency, shortening headache duration, and improving the psychological status of tension-type headache patients (SDS score). The curative effect of acupuncture is better than Western medicine treatment, with statistical significance (P<0.05). However, there was no statistically significant difference (P>0.1) in the improvement of anxiety in patients with tension-type headache by acupuncture compared to the Western medicine group.

KEYWORDS

Acupuncture, tension-type headache, meta-analysis

CITE THIS PAPER

Jingyi Li, Lei Shi, Meta-analysis of Acupuncture Treatment for Tension-type Headache. MEDS Chinese Medicine (2025) Vol. 7: 6-25. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/medcm.2025.070202.

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