Acupuncture as an adjunct to standard treatment for pelvic girdle pain in pregnant women: randomised double‐blinded controlled trial comparing acupuncture with non‐penetrating sham acupuncture

Abstract

Objective To investigate whether acupuncture has a greater treatment effect than non-penetrating sham acupuncture in women with pelvic girdle pain (PGP) during pregnancy.Design Randomised double-blinded controlled trial.Setting East Hospital, Gothenburg, and 25 antenatal primary care units in the region of Västra Götaland, Sweden.Population A total of 115 pregnant women with a clinical diagnosis of PGP who scored ‡50 on a 100-mm visual analogue scale (VAS).Method Women were randomly allocated to standard treatment plus acupuncture or to standard treatment plus non-penetrating sham acupuncture for 8 weeks.Main outcome measures Main outcome measure was pain. Secondary outcomes were frequency of sick leave, functional status, discomfort of PGP, health-related quality of life and recovery of severity of PGP as assessed by the independent examiner.Results After treatment, median pain decreased from 66 to 36 in the acupuncture group and from 69 to 41 in the non-penetrating sham group (P = 0.493) as assessed on a VAS. Women in the acupuncture group were in regular work to a higher extent than women in the sham group (n = 28/57 versus 16/57, P = 0.041). The acupuncture group had superior ability to perform daily activities measured with the disability rating index (DRI) (44 versus 55, P = 0.001). There were no significant differences in quality of life, discomfort of PGP and recovery from severity of PGP between the groups.Conclusions Acupuncture had no significant effect on pain or on the degree of sick leave compared with non-penetrating sham acupuncture. There was some improvement in performing daily activities according to DRI. The data imply that needle penetration contributes to a limited extent to the previously reported beneficial effects of acupuncture.

Evaluating Acupuncture and Standard carE for pregnant women with Back pain (EASE Back): a feasibility study and pilot randomised trial

“…[28][29][30][31][32][33] To date, two rigorously conducted systematic reviews have been published. 7,34 The first of these was a Cochrane Review of eight studies (1305 participants) testing the effects of adding various pregnancy-specific exercises, physiotherapy, acupuncture and pillows to standard pre-natal care.…”

Demanding and challenging: Men’s experiences of living with a pregnant woman with pelvic girdle pain: An interview study

“…Also, the complaint is often trivialized in healthcare [14,15] . Efficient treatments are lacking, but acupuncture and specific stabilising exercises as an adjunct to a pelvic belt, ergonomic advice and home training exercises have been shown to decrease pain and improve function [2,11,16] . PGP has been found to disappear soon after delivery but tends to recur in future pregnancies [7] .…”

“…PGP causes dysfunction, emotional distress [10] , and reduced health-related quality of life for the pregnant woman [8,9,11,12] . Qualitative studies have shown that PGP in pregnancy causes women, struggling with daily life, to doubt their roles and identities as professionals and mothers [12,13] .…”

Effects of craniosacral therapy as experienced by pregnant women with severe pelvic girdle pain: An interview study

“…It was part of a project encompassing an RCT comparing CST plus ST with ST alone for well-defined PGP [10] . ST (education, a pelvic belt and home exercise) was the same as in two previous treatment studies for PGP [8,9] . CST was performed in a spacious room with windows and natural light.…”

“…out in Scandinavia [8][9][10][11][12] , the condition has also been reported in Africa [3] , the Americas [13] , Asia [14,15] , Australia [13] and Europe [16][17][18] . PGP is a musculoskeletal pain concentrated to an area between the posterior iliac crests and gluteal folds, particularly in the sacroiliac joint area.…”