Efficacy of electroacupuncture at the Hegu (LI4) and Taichong (LV3) acupoints in the treatment of migraine: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

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Background: Acupuncture is a relatively safe treatment for pain, and its analgesic effects have been confirmed. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been widely used to treat migraine because of its continuous and highly controllable stimulation. However, few rigorously designed randomized controlled trials have evaluated the efficacy of EA at the Hegu (LI4) and Taichong (LV3) acupoints in the treatment of migraine. Methods/Design: A prospective, single-center, single-blind randomized controlled trial will be performed at Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Ninety-two patients with migraine will be randomly assigned to either undergo EA treatment (20 EA stimulations at the Hegu and Taichong acupoints; EA group, n = 46) or receive oral flunarizine (control group, n = 46). The primary outcome will be the Migraine Disability Assessment questionnaire score after 10 and 20 EA stimulations. The secondary outcomes will be the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item short form health survey score, Visual Analogue Scale score, and peripheral blood concentrations of plasma nitric oxide, calcitonin gene-related peptide, and nuclear factor-kappa B after 10 and 20 EA stimulations. Discussion: This trial is powered to investigate the efficacy of EA at the Hegu and Taichong acupoints in alleviating headache symptoms in patients with migraine and the interventional effects of this therapy on quality of life and social functioning to search for a more effective method of treating migraine. Trial registration: This trial protocol was registered at ClinicalTrial.gov (identifier: NCT02580968) on 30 July 2015. It was approved by the ethics committee of Longhua Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China (approval No. 14401971300).