> Research says it's no more effective than a placebo, but hey, if it works, it works.
The paper you cited doesn’t say this, if anything it says the opposite. It found that it reliably works for some amount of time, but the mechanism is unclear.
“In all case studies and the retrospective study, patients reported substantial reductions in pain immediately after daith piercing; however, headache symptoms recurred several weeks to months thereafter. From the perspective of the Chinese and Western auricular systems, no sufficient explanation for the described treatment effect of daith piercing was found.”
A piercing that takes months to heal and has its own potential side effects (infection for one) does not seem worth weeks of relief after which pain returns. The authors of this study therefore do not recommend this piercing for migraines despite the transitory benefits
“current evidence does not support daith piercing for the treatment of migraine, tension-type headaches, or other headache disorders.”
The paper you cited doesn’t say this, if anything it says the opposite. It found that it reliably works for some amount of time, but the mechanism is unclear.
“In all case studies and the retrospective study, patients reported substantial reductions in pain immediately after daith piercing; however, headache symptoms recurred several weeks to months thereafter. From the perspective of the Chinese and Western auricular systems, no sufficient explanation for the described treatment effect of daith piercing was found.”