Auricular acupuncture for migraine: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: Migraines are caused by neurological and vascular dysfunction, with a side or both sides of the head pain recurrent attack, often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, light, and sound allergy as the characteristics, is the clinical common disease, frequently occurring disease. The incidence of migraine is 8.4% to 28% worldwide (highest in Germany), and the lifetime incidence is about 14.0%. About 18.2% for women and 6.5% for men, About 23 percent of families have at least one migraine sufferer.([1]) It can occur at any age, and more than half of patients have headaches that interfere with work or school, while nearly a third may miss work or school because of the headache.([2]) Therefore, how to relief headache immediately and reduce the impact on life and work, becomes the basic clinical appeal of many patients. Analgesics are the main treatment for migraine in western medicine, many patients, who worried about the side effects of drugs, often take them only when the pain is unbearable, which can only treat the symptoms rather than the root causes.([3]) Auricular acupuncture as a form of acupuncture therapy which is proved to be effective in RCTs and very suitable for patients, has been used in patients who suffer from migraine for a long time, therefore a systematic review is necessary to provide available evidence for further study. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The following databases will be searched from their inception to September 2020: Electronic database includes PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Nature, Science online, VIP medicine information, and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). Primary outcomes: Score of migraine symptoms. Additional outcomes: The overall effective rate. Data will be extracted by two researchers independently, risk of bias of the meta-analysis will be evaluated based on the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. All data analysis will be conducted by data statistics software Review Manager V.5.3. and Stata V.12.0. RESULTS: The results of this study will systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of auricular acupuncture intervention for people with migraine. CONCLUSION: The systematic review of this study will summarize the current published evidence of auricular acupuncture for the treatment of migraine, which can further guide the promotion and application of it. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study is a systematic review, the outcomes are based on the published evidence, so examination and agreement by the ethics committee are not required in this study. We intend to publish the study results in a journal or conference presentations. OPEN SCIENCE FRA NETWORK (OSF) REGISTRATION NUMBER: October 2, 2020 osf.io/q6arf. (https://osf.io/q6arf/.)