acupuncture to treat primary dysmenorrhea in women a randomized controlled trial针灸治疗原发性痛经的女性一个随机对照试验.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2011, Article ID 612464, 11 pages doi:10.1093/ecam/nep239 Original Article Acupuncture to Treat Primary Dysmenorrhea in Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial Caroline A. Smith,1 Caroline A. Crowther,2 Oswald Petrucco,3 Justin Beilby,4 and Hannah Dent5 1 Centre for Complementary Medicine Research, University of Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2 School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health, Australian Research Centre for Health for Women and Babies, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 3 School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 4 Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 5 School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Correspondence should be addressed to Caroline A. Smith, caroline.smith@.au Received 24 June 2009; Accepted 12 December 2009 Copyright © 2011 Caroline A. Smith et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. We examined the effectiveness of acupuncture to reduce the severity and intensity of primary dysmenorrhea. A randomized controlled trial compared acupuncture with control acupuncture using a placebo needle. Eligible women were aged 14–25 years with a diagnosis of primary dysmenorrhea. Women received nine sessions of the study treatment over 3 months. The primary outcomes were menstrual pain intensity and duration, overall improvement in dysmenorrhea symptoms and reduced need fo