A randomised controlled trial in Italy involving 160 women and studying acupuncture for migraine prevention, compared acupuncture treatment with flunarizine over a six month period. Both groups experienced a reduction in the frequency of attacks and drugs used for relief of the symptoms, but the number of attacks at the two and four month points, was lower in the acupuncture group. This was also the only group to show a significant reduction in pain intensity, and significantly lower treatment side effects.
The researchers concluded that acupuncture could be used to prevent migraine attacks, and it was more effective and better tolerated than flunarizine in the first months of treatment.
(Acupuncture in the Prophylactic Treatment of Migraine without Aura: A Comparison with Flunarizine. Headache Journal, 25 October 2002.)