Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Primary Dysmenorrhea

Habek, Dubravko; Habek, Jasna Čerkez; Bobić-Vuković, Mirna; Vujic, B.

doi:10.1159/000072730

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…A recent research showed that acupuncture point injection with vitamin K can alleviate acute menstrual pain, and the relief extended through the nontreatment follow-up cycles in an uncontrolled pilot study, which was conducted in two countries (Wang et al, 2004). Acupuncture at such acupoints as Baihui (DU-20), Hegu (LI-4), Zhongji (CV-3), Guanyuan (CV-4) and Qihai (CV-6) has also shown satisfactory curative effects in treating primary dysmenorrhea (Habek et al, 2003).…”

Section: Dysmenorrheamentioning

confidence: 99%

Treating gynaecological disorders with traditional Chinese medicine: a review

Zhou

Qu²

2010

Afr. J. Trad. Compl. Alt. Med.

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Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has significant advantages in treating gynaecological disorders. The paper has provided a brief introduction on the current progress of treating some gynaecological disorders including endometriosis, infertility, dysmenorrhea, abnormal uterine bleeding, premenstrual syndrome, menopausal syndrome, uterine fibroids, chronic pelvic inflammation, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), cervicitis and vaginitis with Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) and acupuncture. The use of TCM in the field of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) has also been included in the review. In addition, thirty-two commonly used Chinese medicinal formulas in treating gynaecological disorders have been introduced.

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Section: Dysmenorrheamentioning

confidence: 99%

Treating gynaecological disorders with traditional Chinese medicine: a review

Zhou

Qu²

2010

Afr. J. Trad. Compl. Alt. Med.

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“…Two studies 35,36 were duplicated articles. The remaining 36 studies were further evaluated with regard to randomisation; five trials [37][38][39][40][41] did not mention randomisation and four trials [42][43][44][45] were found to be quasi-randomised trials. The remaining 27 studies, involving 2960 subjects, met our inclusion criteria and were systematically reviewed.…”

Section: Study Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acupuncture for primary dysmenorrhoea: a systematic review

Cho

2010

BJOG

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Background The effectiveness of acupuncture in primary dysmenorrhoea is not fully understood.Objectives To assess the effectiveness of acupuncture for the symptomatic treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea from randomised controlled trials (RCTs).Search strategy Nineteen electronic databases, including English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese databases, were systematically searched for RCTs investigating acupuncture for primary dysmenorrhoea up to July 2008 with no language restrictions.Selection criteria All RCTs that evaluated the effects of acupuncture compared with controls were included. Studies that assessed the effect of moxibustion or body acupressure were excluded.Data collection and analysis The study abstraction and quality assessment of all studies were undertaken following the detailed descriptions of these categories as described in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.Main results Twenty-seven RCTs were systematically reviewed. Only nine of the 27 trials clearly described their methods of randomisation and none of the trials stated the methods of allocation concealment. Compared with pharmacological treatment or herbal medicine, acupuncture was associated with a significant reduction in pain. Three studies reported reduced pain within groups from baseline; however, two RCTs did not find a significant difference between acupuncture and sham acupuncture.Author's conclusions The review found promising evidence in the form of RCTs for the use of acupuncture in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea compared with pharmacological treatment or herbal medicine. However, the results were limited by methodological flaws. The evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture for the treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea is not convincing compared with sham acupuncture. Further rigorous nonpenetrating placebo-controlled RCTs are warranted.

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“…In other studies on dysmenorrhea, pains have been relieved with various treatment approaches that include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Namavar Jahromi et al, 2003;Mehlisch et al, 2003;Milsom et al, 2002), oral contraception (Milsom and Andersch, 1984;Davis and Westhoff, 2001;Callejo et al, 2003), acupuncture (Helms, 1987;Habek et al, 2003), transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (Dawood and Ramos, 1990;Kaplan et al, 1997), and microwave diathermy treatment (Vance et al, 1996). However, results of these treatments were subjective.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific Physiological Responses in Women with Severe Primary Dysmenorrhea during the Menstrual Cycle

Park

Watanuki

2005

J. Physiol. Anthropol.

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This study examined the specific physiological responses of women with primary dysmenorrhea during the severely painful menstrual (days 1-2 of menstruation) and the non-painful follicular phases (days 5-8 after the onset of menstruation). Subjects consisted of 10 severe primary dysmenorrheic (Group P) and 10 non-dysmenorrheic women (Group C) with regular menstrual cycles. However, only 9 out of 10 and 8 out of 10 subjects of Groups P and C participated during the follicular phase. Physiological measures were taken in a resting state for 60 min. In the menstrual phase, the pain ratings and secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) concentrations of Group P were significantly higher than those of Group C, with relatively significant decreases in the leg-skin temperature in the former as well. In addition, the systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at 45 min after rest in Group P were significantly higher than those found in Group C. These reactions strongly suggest activation of the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary axis (SAM axis) by painful stress. Furthermore, the low-frequency (LF) component of the SBP variability (SBPV) was significantly higher in Group P than Group C, even during the follicular phase. These findings imply that Group P may well have elevated activities of the SAM axis throughout the whole menstrual cycle. As such, it suggests that dysmenorrheic women may be affected by certain stressors other than pain per se and pain-derived emotions throughout the whole menstrual cycle. The findings also indicate that women with dysmenorrhea have more sensitive responses to the SAM system than non-dysmenorrheic women during stress. Moreover, the high-frequency (HF) component of heart rate variability (HRV), or the index for the vagus nerve activity, displayed a consistently higher value in Group P than C. It is postulated that the human body may have responded to pain in an attempt to maintain the homeostatic state by enhancing vagus nerve activity.

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Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Primary Dysmenorrhea

Cited by 20 publications

References 9 publications

Treating gynaecological disorders with traditional Chinese medicine: a review

Treating gynaecological disorders with traditional Chinese medicine: a review

Acupuncture for primary dysmenorrhoea: a systematic review

Specific Physiological Responses in Women with Severe Primary Dysmenorrhea during the Menstrual Cycle

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