Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ ↗
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HEALTH

The Claim

Acupuncture is used both for migraine prevention (reducing future migraine attack frequency) and for relief during an active migraine attack.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

Available evidence supports both parts of the claim. Acupuncture is well studied as a preventive option for migraine, with multiple systematic reviews showing reduced attack frequency. It has also been used during active migraine attacks in trials and some clinical settings, although the acute-use evidence is much smaller and it is not a standard first-line abortive treatment.

Caveats

  • The evidence for prevention is substantially stronger than the evidence for treating an ongoing migraine attack.
  • Use during an active attack does not mean acupuncture is a standard first-line acute migraine treatment in major headache guidelines.
  • Acute relief from acupuncture may be slower or less predictable than standard medications such as triptans or other abortive therapies.

The Receipts

  1. Acupuncture for the Prevention of Migraine

    NCBI Bookshelf

  2. Acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis

    PubMed (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews)

  3. Update on integrating new migraine treatments into clinical practice

    PubMed

  4. Acupuncture for preventing migraine attacks

    Cochrane

  5. Acupuncture for the prevention of episodic migraine

    PubMed

  6. Acupuncture for the prevention of tension-type headache and migraine headache: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

    PubMed

  7. A Randomized Clinical Trial on Acupuncture Versus Best Medical Therapy for the Prophylaxis of Migraine

    PubMed Central (NIH/NLM)

  8. Acupuncture: What You Need To Know

    NCCIH

  9. Long-term Effect of Acupuncture for Migraine Prophylaxis: A Randomized Clinical Trial

    JAMA Internal Medicine

  10. A Randomized Clinical Trial on Acupuncture Versus Best Medical Therapy for Migraine Prophylaxis: The ACUMIGRAN Study

    Frontiers in Neurology

+ 27 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

AcupunctureMigraine

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