The effect of Carthami-Semen acupuncture on chronic daily headache: A pilot study

Objectives : This pilot study is designed to reveal the effect of Carthami-semen acupuncture treatment on chronic daily headache. Methods : 1. All the voluntary subjects were diagnosed as CDH. 2. Carthami-semen acupuncture is applied 2 times a week for 4 weeks. 3. The patients were assessed by Headache impairment test score(HIT), Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey, and Headache Free Days(HFD) before and after 4 weeks treatment, and two weeks the treatment finished. Results : The result were as follows ; 1. HIT score decreased from 65.3±5.5 to 53.1±9.4, and furthermore declined to 49.5±8.0 after 2 weeks the treatment finished. 2. HFD increased from 19.1% to 31.5% during the treatment time. Moreover it showed continuous effectiveness after 2 weeks the treatment finished. 3. SF-36 showed significant improvement on all of the QOL items. Conclusions : This pilot study suggests that Carthami-semen acupuncture treatment has an effect on the CDH patients.