Laser Acupuncture as a Preventive Treatment for Migraines and Chronic Tension Headaches in Children

Laser acupuncture, a relatively new method of stimulation, uses low-energy lasers to influence the flow of current at the acupoints. The German study, which is titled “Laser acupuncture in children with headache: A double-blind, randomized, bicenter, placebo-controlled trial,” specifically focuses on the effect of laser stimulation compared to placebo-stimulation.

The study was carried out using the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled method. The conductors of the study took 43 children suffering from either chronic migraine headaches (22 patients) or chronic tension headaches (21 patients) and gave them four randomized treatments over four weeks. Each random treatment was double-blind, which means they were conducted so that both the researcher and the participant were unaware whether the laser had been set at the appropriate strength, or not set at all.

The results of the study were analyzed in three ways:

The first method examined and compared the number of “headache days.
The second method compared the severity of the pain using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The VAS is a medical tool that helps a person rate the intensity of certain sensations and feelings, such as pain.
The final method for analyzing the results was to compare the amount of time each child experienced headaches before and after the treatments.

The Results:

The results were as follows: the mean number of “headache days” decreased by 1.0 day in the placebo group and 6.4 days in the treated group. The VAS, in contrast to the placebo group, showed a significant decrease in the children’s perception of the severity of the headaches. Finally, the children’s total amount of time with headaches was found to be much lower than the placebo group.

In other words, the children who received true laser acupuncture had less days where headaches occurred, felt less pain when headaches did occur and experienced much less time with headaches than the children who thought they were getting treatment but in fact were not.

The German researchers concluded, “that laser acupuncture can provide a significant benefit for children with headache, with active laser treatment being clearly more effective than placebo laser treatment.”

link: Laser acupuncture effective against headaches in children