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

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.