The effect of acupressure at the Sanyinjiao (SP6) point on relief of primary dysmenorrhea: a systematic review of clinical trials

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 PhD student in Reproductive Health, Student Research Committee, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Primary dysmenorrhea is one of the most common problem in women of reproductive age that negatively affect their quality of life. Since today using of complementary medicine for alleviation of primary dysmenorrhea has been considered, this study was performed with aim to review the clinical trials which evaluated the effect of acupressure at the Sanyinjiao point on relief of primary dysmenorrhea.
Methods: In this review article, electronic databases of SID, Iranmedex, Magiran, IranDoc, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and IRCT were searched up to September 24, 2016 to identify all the studies reporting the effect of acupressure at the Sanyinjiao point on relief of primary dysmenorrhea. The search was performed using the keywords of dysmenorrhea, painful menstruation, acupressure, Sanyinjiao Point, SP6 Point, Spleen 6 Point and Clinical trial. The quality of included studies was assessed using the Cochrane "risk of bias" tool. The results were reported qualitatively.
Results: Among 475 articles found in the initial search, 16 randomized trials (1436 participants) were selected for this systematic review. The studies were conducted in Iran, China, Korea, Taiwan and Egypt. Most studies showed significant reduction in the severity of dysmenorrhea in acupressure at Sanyinjiao point group compared with the control group. Few studies were investigated the possible side effects of acupressure technique that no serious adverse effects were reported in these studies.
Conclusion: Acupressure at the Sanyinjiao point can be an effective method for alleviation of primary dysmenorrhea, but due to the poor methodological quality in the majority of trials, more studies with high-quality are needed to confirm these findings.

Keywords

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The Iranian Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility
Volume 19, Issue 40
March 2017
Pages 55-68

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