A study by the University of Padua in Italy of acupuncture and migraine, has attempted to compare the effectiveness of true traditional Chinese acupuncture, with sham acupuncture (in which patients were lead to believe needles were being inserted) and standard drug therapy with Rizatriptan.
A total of 160 participants were divided into four groups, comprising a true traditional acupuncture group plus the drug, two groups using variations of sham acupuncture plus the drug, and finally, the drug only. Improvements were found in all groups at three and six months, but true traditional acupuncture was the only treatment to provide a significant improvement at both three and six months, compared to drug therapy only.
(Traditional Acupuncture in Migraine: A Controlled Randomized Study. Headache Journal, 11 December 2007.)