Study on the effect of massage therapy for migraines

Migraine is a stressful condition that is often triggered by stress and poor sleep. To date, only one randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effects of massage therapy on migraine has shown promising results.

Sheleigh P. Lawler and Linda D. Cameron conducted a new RCT to verify and extend the earlier results with a larger sample, additional stress-related indicators and longer-term assessments.

47 migraine patients were randomly assigned to a massage or control group and kept daily records of their migraine experiences and sleep behavior for 13 weeks. The massage group received weekly massage sessions from week 5 to 10. Anxiety, heart rate and salivary cortisol levels were measured before and after the sessions. Perceived stress and coping efficiency were recorded in weeks 4, 10 and 13.

Compared to the control group, the massage group showed a greater improvement in migraine frequency and sleep quality during the intervention weeks and in the three subsequent weeks. There were also indications of positive effects on perceived stress and coping ability. During the sessions, there was a decrease in anxiety, heart rate and cortisol levels.

The results provide initial evidence that massage therapy could be an effective non-pharmacological treatment for migraine patients.