Using pharmacopuncture for chronic tension-type headache treatment

Objective: assessing pharmacopuncture effect on pain syndrome and level of anxiety-depressive disorders in patients with chronic tension-type headache (CTTH). Materials and methods. An open-label controlled trial was conducted on 95 CTTH patients split among two groups by means of adaptive randomization. The comparison group subjects were receiving 35-70 mg/day of amitriptyline and 450 mg/day of tolperisone, while patients of the treatment group were assigned 2-4 courses of pharmacopuncture by the original method. The results were evaluated on the basis of the scores obtained via Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), McGill Pain Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) sensu Ch. Spielberger and Yu. Khanin. Results. Patients in both clinical groups were inclined to a positive evaluation of received treatment. Based on the results of McGill Pain Questionnaire, we determined both affective and sensory pain descriptors, with a predominance of the latter. Both groups exhibited moderate depressive symptoms according to BDI of the psychological status. Prevalence of trait anxiety over reactive anxiety was determined by STAI. According to VAS, pain intensity after the treatment declined from 5.26±0.87 to 1.7±0.78 points (p<0.05) and from 5.17±0.78 to 1.65±0.79 (p<0.05) in the comparison group versus the treatment group. An improvement of anxiety and depression indicators was detected. Conclusion. Our results have demonstrated that pharmacopuncture is very promising in treating CTTH patients.