Department of Rehabilitation, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan.
Am J Chin Med. 2010;38(1):1-14. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X10007634.
The efficacy of acupressure in relieving pain has been documented; however, its effectiveness for chronic headache compared to the muscle relaxant medication has not yet been elucidated. To address this, a randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted in a medical center in Southern Taiwan in 2003. Twenty-eight patients suffering chronic headache were randomly assigned to the acupressure group (n = 14) or the muscle relaxant medication group (n = 14). Outcome measures regarding self-appraised pain scores (measured on a visual analogue scale; VAS) and ratings of how headaches affected life quality were recorded at baseline, 1 month after treatment, and at a 6-month follow-up. Pain areas were recorded in order to establish trigger points. Results showed that mean scores on the VAS at post-treatment assessment were significantly lower in the acupressure group (32.9+/-26.0) than in the muscle relaxant medication group (55.7+/-28.7) (p = 0.047). The superiority of acupressure over muscle relaxant medication remained at 6-month follow-up assessments (p = 0.002). The quality of life ratings related to headache showed similar differences between the two groups in the post treatment and at six-month assessments. Trigger points BL2, GV20, GB20, TH21, and GB5 were used most commonly for etiological assessment. In conclusion, our study suggests that 1 month of acupressure treatment is more effective in reducing chronic headache than 1 month of muscle relaxant treatment, and that the effect remains 6 months after treatment. Trigger points help demonstrate the treatment technique recommended if a larger-scale study is conducted in the future.
穴位按压缓解疼痛的疗效已有记载；然而，其在慢性头痛方面的效果与肌肉松弛药物相比尚未阐明。为了解决这个问题，2003 年在台湾南部的一家医疗中心进行了一项随机、对照临床试验。28 名患有慢性头痛的患者被随机分配到穴位按压组（n = 14）或肌肉松弛药物组（n = 14）。在基线、治疗 1 个月和 6 个月随访时，记录了关于自我评估疼痛评分（使用视觉模拟量表（VAS）测量）和头痛对生活质量影响的评分的结果。记录疼痛区域以确定触发点。结果表明，治疗后评估时穴位按压组的 VAS 平均得分（32.9+/-26.0）明显低于肌肉松弛药物组（55.7+/-28.7）（p = 0.047）。在 6 个月随访评估时，穴位按压优于肌肉松弛药物的优势仍然存在（p = 0.002）。与头痛相关的生活质量评分在治疗后和 6 个月评估时两组之间也显示出相似的差异。BL2、GV20、GB20、TH21 和 GB5 是最常用于病因评估的触发点。总之，我们的研究表明，1 个月的穴位按压治疗在缓解慢性头痛方面比 1 个月的肌肉松弛治疗更有效，并且在治疗后 6 个月仍有效。如果在未来进行更大规模的研究，触发点有助于展示推荐的治疗技术。
