Comparison of Pressure Effect on Sanyinjiao Point with that of Ibuprofen on Primary Dysmenorrhea

Dysmenorrhea is the most common gynecological disorder among adolescent. The disease not only can cause physical and mental problems to woman all throughout the world, it may also bring about many socio- economic difficulties. Materials &

This study was a randomized clinical trial on 80 girls of 18-22 years who complained of primary dysmenorrhea and moderate to sever pain. They were divided in to two groups randomaly : (1) Acupressure group (2) Ibuprofen group. In the first menstrual cycle, there was no intervention in the groups. In second and third cycles, the 40 cases in Acupressure group used Acupressure at sanyinjiao point and the 40 cases in Ibuprofen group were treated by Ibuprofen (400 mg q 8h). The necessary data was gathered by questionaires and Visual analuge scale of pain (VAS) and Andrish- millsom scale of dysmenorrhea. Mann-whitney, fridman , wilcoxon , chi-square and t-test were used for data analysis.

This study showed that there was no significant difference in comparison of pain intensity between the two groups in the first and second months (P=0.073 and P=0.328 respectively) But there was a significant difference in comparison of pain intensity for each group before and after the treatment (P<0.001). Duration of pain in the first and second months didn’t prove any significant difference in the groups (P=0.308 and P=0.142 respectively) but duration of pain for each group was significantly different (P<0.001). Hhr need to extra analgesics in each group during the two cycles didn’t show any significant difference (P=0.390 and P=0.352 respectively).

The findings suggest that acupressure at sanyinjiao point can be an effective , available , cost – free intervention for reducing pain in dysmenorrhea and we recommend its use for self – care of primary dysmenorrhea . ***