Effects of Kinesiotaping vs.Auricular Therapy in Primary Dysmenorrhoea.

University of Extremadura160 enrolled

Overview

This study analyse the effectiveness of auricular therapy vs. kinesio tape treatment for pain management of women with primary dysmenorrhoea.

Pharmacological treatments are not effective for all women and therefore, the objective of this study was to assess and compare the effectiveness of kinesio tape and auricular therapy to decrease pain and drug intake in women with primary dysmenorrhoea. A randomized controlled trial was conducted. 114 university women from 18 to 30 years old were randomized to 5 groups: control, kinesio tape, placebo kinesio tape, auricular therapy and placebo auricular therapy. The study was carried out during 4 menstrual cycles of pre-treatment phase, 4 menstrual cycles of treatment phase and two follow up phases (first and third cycle after the treatments were completed). During the treatment phase, the techniques were applied during 72h in each cycle. The primary outcome measures were: Mean pain intensity of the 3 first days of bleeding, maximum pain intensity, number of painful days and dose of drug intake measured with the Visual Analogue Scale.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

160

Conditions

Primary Dysmenorrhoea

Interventions

Auricular therapyPROCEDURE

The auricular therapy points were selected following the protocol for dysmenorrhoea described by Oleson (Oleson, 2008). These points were (the name of the European cartography is specified by the name of the point): Shenmen \[FT2\], uterus \[FT5\], sympathetic \[HI4\], kidney \[CS6\], heart \[CI4\], endocrine \[IT2\] and thalamus \[PC2\].

kinesio tapePROCEDURE

Before the tape application, the skin surface was removed of hair when needed and cleansed. The tapes were applied at 25% of tension and were placed horizontally covering the area between the antero-superior iliac spines and the postero-superior iliac spines and vertically from the navel to the symphysis pubis. All bandages were adhered to the skin with a technique type I with a space augmentation. The centre of the tape was removed and applied at 25% of tension. Afterwards, the rest of the protector were removed and the laterals anchors of the tape were adhered with no tension. The participant maintained a slight extension of the trunk while the tape was applied on the anterior aspect of the truck and a slight flexion while the tape was applied in the posterior aspect of the trunk.

Eligibility

Sex: FEMALEMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 30 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Women between 18 and 30 years old affected by primary dysmenorrhoea grade 2 and 3 of Andersch y Milsom classification (Andersch y Milsom, 1982), to have attended gynaecologist consultation for a general revision in the last 2 years, to have menstrual pain, to have regular menstrual cycles of 21 to 38 days, to not have an intrauterine/inter-uterine) device or to be on oral contraceptive treatment. Exclusion Criteria: * To have been diagnosed with a condition that could influence menstrual pain perception, to know or have been previously treated with the techniques used in the interventions and pregnancy.

Locations (1)

University of Extremadura

Badajoz, Spain

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Changes from the Mean pain intensity

Mean pain intensity of the 3 first days of menstruation measured with the Visual Analogue Scale. Scores range from 0 to 10 where where 0 means no pain and 10 means maximum and excruciating pain.

Time frame: Measured at the end of the menstruation of 4 cycles (28 days) during the pre-treatment and the treatment phase (total of 8 measurements) and at the end of the menstruation of the 9th and 11th cycle (Follow up)

Changes from the Maximum pain intensity

Maximum pain intensity during menstruation measured with the Visual Analogue Scale. Scores range from 0 to 10 where where 0 means no pain and 10 means maximum and excruciating pain.

Changes from number of painful days

Count of number of days when the participant experienced pain during the menstruation. A lower number of painful days indicate an improvement

Changes from the dosage of drug intake

Register of dosage and grug intake of each participant to relief pain during the menstruation. A lower dose of drug intake indicate an improvement.

Secondary Outcomes

Changes from the Length of the menstrual cycle

Count of days that the menstrual cycle lasted for.

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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