Daith Ear Piercing is a recent addition to potential treatments for migraines. The piercing, which was first invented in 1992, goes through the cartilage of the inner helix of the ear, and originally it was just done for cosmetic reasons. However people started reporting that their migraines were improved after they had had it done. 2 years ago it went viral after Dr Thomas Cohn, a respected pain doctor in the USA, mentioned it on his blog. Since then thousands of people have had it done
Surprisingly no medical quality research has been undertaken yet! There are a few low-grade online surveys that non-medical people have started, but they do show some promising results. There are many unanswered questions, and more research is needed, so Dr Chris Blatchley has started the first medical-grade online survey for people who have already had a Daith Ear Piercing for Migraines. The results so far show that there is a very clear effect.
The data collected over the last 3 months show that of the group who have had migraines for 10 yrs or more and a Daith piercing for at least 12 months 80% are delighted or very happy with the results.
- Before the piercing 28% had migraine on most days or more often and 5% had a migraine on one day month or less
- Now, a year or more later, only 6% are having migraines on most days or more often and 64% are having a migraine on one day a month or less and most of those are reporting a large reduction in the severity of the migraines they still have
- However 14% reported No Obvious Change. It is unclear at the moment whether piercing technique is causing this or that these sufferers are non-responders to the piercing because of the type of their migraine. We are examining the data in more depth at the moment
- While it is clear from detailed analysis of the data that the piercing has a strong effect, it is not yet possible to say what proportion will find that the piercing has no effect because of the bias in sampling caused because people have self-selected to take part in the survey
If you have already had a Daith Ear Piercing, please do fill in the survey by clicking on this link Daith Piercing for Migraines Survey on the English Survey page
The survey is on Migraine-research.org – the website that is co-ordinating the research by Dr Chris Blatchley and The London Migraine Clinic. The survey will take about 10-15 minutes to fill in
We will be updating these results on the migraine-research.org site as we have more information
Thank you!!
