Effect of Pranayama as Adjuvant to Medical Treatment on Severity, Frequency, and Duration of Headache in Migraine Patients: An Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Migraine is the second leading cause of disability worldwide with high rates of dissatisfaction for allopathic treatment among patients. Pranayama is an easy, convenient, and cost-effective method that can supplement existing standard medical treatment of migraine. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of pranayama as an adjuvant to standard medical treatment of migraine on clinical outcome variables of migraine. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a randomized controlled trial conducted on 80 consecutive migraine patients who were diagnosed as per International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 (ICHD-3) criteria and were randomly allocated into two groups, that is, standard medical treatment (SMT) group and standard medical treatment plus pranayama (SMT + P) group. The effect of pranayama on clinical outcome variables of migraine was evaluated by using standardized questionnaires. The data was statistically analyzed using SPSS Statistics 20 software. A P value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Intragroup analysis showed all clinical outcome variables of migraine reduced significantly in the SMT + P group whereas all clinical outcome variables of migraine except the duration of headache episodes reduced significantly in the SMT group. Although statistically non-significant, intergroup analysis demonstrates that reduction in headache severity, duration of headache episodes, and headache impact test-6 (HIT-6) score was more in the SMT + P group whereas reduction in headache frequency and migraine disability assessment (MIDAS) score was more in the SMT group. CONCLUSION: Pranayama supplements the standard medical treatment of migraine by reducing the duration of headache episodes in addition to the reduction in headache severity, headache frequency, HIT-6 scores, and MIDAS scores.