Acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis: A protocol for systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis

Abstract

Migraine causes health problems in 1 billion people worldwide and imposes a huge social burden. Acupuncture therapy has a good clinical effect in migraine prophylaxis and is recommended by authoritative journals. We plan to conduct a Bayesian network meta-analysis to compare the efficacies of different acupuncture therapies. We will search PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP database for Chinese technical periodicals, Chinese biological medical database, WanFang Data, Cochrane register of controlled trials, Chinese Clinical Trial Register, and ClinicalTrials.gov from their inception to July 1, 2022, for randomized controlled trials that studied different acupuncture therapies and other therapies for the preventive treatment of migraine. Migraine episodes, migraine days, headache intensity, and adverse events will be counted as outcomes. Two reviewers will independently complete the study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment of all filtered trials. Pairwise meta-analysis and Bayesian network meta-analysis will be performed (if applicable) through Review Manager 5.3 and the "gemtc" and "rjags" packages of the R software. Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis will be used to evaluate the quality and credibility of the evidence for each outcome. The protocol will compare the efficacies of different acupuncture therapies for migraine prophylaxis. This study aims to help clinicians develop an effective and safe treatment plan for migraine prophylaxis.