Clinical study of auricular acupuncture in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea

Dysmenorrhea refers to lower abdominal pain, low back soreness, lower abdominal heaviness or other discomfort occurring before, after or during menstruation that affects work and daily life; in traditional Chinese medicine it is called "abdominal pain during menstruation". Dysmenorrhea can be divided into primary and secondary types. Primary dysmenorrhea refers to dysmenorrhea without organic lesions of the reproductive organs, also called "functional dysmenorrhea", and mostly occurs in ovulatory menstrual cycles. It is a common and frequent gynecological disease that affects women's life, study, activities and work. It mostly occurs at 15-25 years of age and within 6 months to 2 years after menarche, and is one of the common diseases of adolescence. Its reported incidence varies, at about 42-90%, with severe dysmenorrhea accounting for about 18%. There are many treatments for dysmenorrhea, mainly oral Chinese herbal medicine, filiform needle acupuncture, moxibustion, auricular point therapy, acupoint injection, acupoint application, acupoint catgut embedding, scraping, cupping and massage, as well as combinations of these, among which acupuncture and moxibustion are more effective. Western medicine mostly uses antispasmodic and analgesic drugs, which relieve pain well, but the effect is short-lived, recurrence is common and there are some side effects, which limit their clinical use. This project was therefore designed to further study the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. OBJECTIVE: Under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory, to observe the clinical efficacy of auricular acupuncture in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea, in order to explore a more effective treatment for primary dysmenorrhea, relieve patients' dysmenorrhea and the accompanying symptoms, and improve their quality of life. METHODS: Sixty subjects with primary dysmenorrhea who met the diagnostic, inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, with 30 cases in each group. The treatment group was treated with auricular acupuncture. The control group was treated with oral Fenbid (ibuprofen). Both groups were treated at the onset of dysmenorrheal pain, for a total of three menstrual cycles. Efficacy was evaluated with a dysmenorrhea observation scale, before treatment, after treatment in each menstrual cycle, and 3 months after the end of treatment. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the treatment and control groups in age composition, disease duration and other indicators, so the groups were comparable. Before treatment, there was no significant difference in dysmenorrhea severity scores between the two groups, so they were comparable. Efficacy was evaluated 3 months after the end of treatment: in the treatment group, 11 cases were clinically cured, 7 markedly effective, 11 effective and 1 ineffective, with a total effective rate of 96.67%; in the control group, 0 cases were clinically cured, 0 markedly effective, 7 effective and 23 ineffective, with a total effective rate of 23.33%. The difference in total effective rate between the two groups was statistically significant, with the treatment group superior to the control group, showing that the long-term efficacy of auricular acupuncture is superior to that of oral Fenbid. The immediate efficacy rates in the three menstrual cycles also differed significantly between the two groups, with the treatment group superior to the control group, showing that auricular acupuncture has a shorter onset time and better analgesic effect than oral Fenbid in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. Thus, both auricular acupuncture and oral Fenbid are effective for primary dysmenorrhea (immediate analgesic effect), but auricular acupuncture is superior to oral Fenbid; in terms of onset time, auricular acupuncture relieves the pain of primary dysmenorrhea faster than oral Fenbid, with a better analgesic effect. In terms of long-term efficacy, auricular acupuncture is far superior to oral Fenbid. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that auricular acupuncture for primary dysmenorrhea can effectively relieve or eliminate patients' pain and the suffering from accompanying symptoms of dysmenorrhea, and improve their quality of life. In particular, the immediate efficacy of auricular acupuncture is clearly superior to that of oral Fenbid. Overall, auricular acupuncture is more effective in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. Auricular acupuncture is also simple to perform, clearly effective and free of toxic side effects; it is a safe and effective treatment that deserves clinical promotion and further research.