Some recent studies have shown that patients suffering from chronic headaches and migraines may benefit more from long-term chiropractic care than drug therapy alone.

For headaches that originate in the cervical (neck) area, chiropractic treatment, such as spinal manipulation, has been shown to be quite effective. A 2001 Duke University study, for example, found that spinal manipulation provided relief for patients with headaches that originate in the neck, and resulted in fewer side effects than medication. Researchers in that study concluded that such treatments as relaxation training, thermal biofeedback combined with electromyographic biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral therapy, nutritional changes, and to a lesser degree, acupuncture, are all modestly effective in treating migraine headaches.