Ahonen 1984

Methods	Blinding: none Dropouts/withdrawals: unclear Observation period: baseline 2 months; treatment unclear, no follow-up Acupuncturists’ assessments: GA differently/60% - BB differently/30%
Participants	Number of patients included/analyzed: 22?/22 Condition: myogenic headache Demographics: mean age 46 years (acupuncture) and 37 (control); 82% female Setting: neurological outpatient department of university hospital in Finland Time since onset of headaches: 5.7 years
Interventions	Acupuncture points: GB8, GB20, BL10, BL12, BL15, Chuanxi and pressure points on the neck No information on acupuncturist(s) DeChi achieved?: no information Number of treatment sessions: unclear (10 minutes each) Frequency of treatment sessions: no information Control intervention: physiotherapy (parafango, massage, ultrasound)
Outcomes	Method for outcome measurement: point measurement (no diaries); pain intensity (visual analogue scale) and muscle tension (EMG) were measured; only data for follow-up and only number of patients with global response, response regarding frequency and medication presented
Notes	Insufficient reporting; unclear whether there were dropouts/withdrawals, poor outcome measurement; sample size too small to assess equivalence of the two therapies
Risk of bias
Item	Authors’ judgement	Description
Adequate sequence generation?	Unclear	No description
Allocation concealment?	Unclear	No description
Blinding? All outcomes	No	No
Incomplete outcome data addressed? All outcomes	Unclear	No mentioning of attrition
Free of selective reporting?	No	Visual analogue scales have been used but only global responder measures are re-ported
Incomplete follow-up outcome data ad-dressed?	Unclear	No mentioning of attrition