Chiropractic Care for Episodic Migraine

Summary

Migraine, a chronic intermittent headache disorder, ranks in the top five causes of years lived with disability. One promising non-pharmacologic and integrative treatment for migraine may be chiropractic care due to the co-occurrence of migraine and musculoskeletal complaints. The goal of this application is to perform a pilot study of chiropractic care for episodic migraine to help inform the design of a future, full-scale pragmatic effectiveness trial.

Conditions

• Episodic Migraine

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Chiropractic Care

The chiropractic care protocol can be personalized to the patient's clinical needs and follows the scope of chiropractic care practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Connecticut. Components of the chiropractic intervention include: posture correction / spinal stabilization exercises; soft tissue relaxation techniques; spinal manipulation (i.e. chiropractic adjustment) / mobilization; breathing and relaxation techniques; stretches, self-care; ergonomic modifications; bracing and supports.

BEHAVIORAL

Headache Health Education

Participants randomized to the HHE arm will receive 14 interactive 15-minute education sessions delivered via video conference. To partially control for attention and expectation associated with chiropractic care, participants randomized to the control group will receive a modified version of a headache education intervention we employed in our pilot study. Participants randomized to HHE will receive 14 interactive 15-minute education sessions delivered via VA or MGB Teams. Material to be covered will focus on pre-defined migraine-specific topics, compared with the control for our pilot study, in addition to greater contact time, HHE will be delivered in a more interactive manner utilizing active learning principles known to support adult learning. We will also utilize publicly available short videos (e.g., from the American Headache Society) followed by scripted discussions with the participant. Example topics include the physiology of migraine or the contribution of life.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Palmer College of Chiropractic

  collaborator OTHER

• Yale University

  collaborator OTHER

• VA Connecticut Healthcare System

  collaborator FED

• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

  collaborator NIH

• Brigham and Women's Hospital

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-03-22

Primary Completion

2026-04-01

Completion

2027-04-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations