Acupuncture for primary dysmenorrhea: A randomized controlled trial

Objective: To observe the clinical therapeutic effects of acupuncture treatment for primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: 122 cases of primary dysmenorrhea were randomly divided into three groups. Fifty-two cases in the acupuncture group were treated with acupuncture. Forty cases in the medication group were treated with oral administration of Ibuprofen. Thirty cases in the placebo group were treated with oral administration of vitamin B1. The therapeutic effects were observed after treatments for three menstrual cycles. Results: The total effective rate was 96.2% in the acupuncture group, 80.0% in the medication group and 13.3% in the placebo group. By statistical management, the differences among the acupuncture group, the medication group, and placebo group were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Both acupuncture and western medication are effective for primary dysmenorrhea and acupuncture treatment is better than Ibuprofen © 2011 Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.