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.