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Revealing the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of acupuncture on migraine using neuroimaging: a narrative review

LIU Lu¹, TIAN Tian¹, XU Tao¹, WANG Ya-Nan¹, NI Xi-Xiu¹, LI Xiao¹, HE Zhen-Xi ¹, GAO Shan¹, LIANG Fan-Rong^1,2, ZHAO Ling^1,2,*

¹Acupuncture and Tuina School, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610075, China；²Acupuncture & Chronobiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 610075, China

Abstract

Migraine is a neurological disorder characterized by attacks of moderate or severe headache and various neurological symptoms. Acupuncture, as a commonly used non-pharmacological therapy, has the advantage of obvious therapeutic effect and few side effects in the prevention and treatment of migraine. But the underlying mechanism of acupuncture on migraine remains unclear. Recently, advances in neuroimaging technology have helped to objectively assess the effect of acupuncture on treating migraine and offered new opportunities to explore the central mechanism of acupuncture on treating migraine. In order to better understand the current status of neuroimaging studies on the therapeutic mechanism of acupuncture on migraine and shed light on future research, this review aims to overview the neuroimaging studies in recent 10 years from two aspects: (1) Central mechanism of acupuncture on treating acute migraine attack; (2) Central mechanism of acupuncture on preventing migraine attack.

Key words: Acupuncture; migraine without aura; functional neuroimaging

Received: 2021-01-17　　Accepted: 2021-05-26

Corresponding author: 赵凌　　E-mail: zhaoling@cdutcm.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2021.0042

Citing This Article：

LIU Lu, TIAN Tian, XU Tao, WANG Ya-Nan, NI Xi-Xiu, LI Xiao, HE Zhen-Xi , GAO Shan, LIANG Fan-Rong, ZHAO Ling. Revealing the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of acupuncture on migraine using neuroimaging: a narrative review. Acta Physiol Sin 2021; 73 (3): 433-445 (in Chinese with English abstract).