ArticleEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2015
Efficacy of Acupuncture versus Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill in Treatment of Moderate-to-Severe Dysmenorrhea: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Article in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Traditional Chinese medicine interventions based on meridian theory for pain relief in patients with primary dysmenorrhea: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture and or Moxibustion for Managing Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical nursing research · 2022Pooled it
- The efficacy and safety of acupuncture in women with primary dysmenorrhea: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Acupuncture for dysmenorrhoea.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Comparative Efficacy of Low-Level Laser Acupuncture and Electroacupuncture in Women With Dysmenorrhea and Autonomic Imbalance: A Pilot Randomized-Controlled Trial.Pain research & management · 2025Trial
- Clinical observation on 90 cases of primary dysmenorrhea treated by buccal acupuncture therapy: a randomized controlled study.Journal of traditional Chinese medicine = Chung i tsa chih ying wen pan · 2024Trial
- Clinical evidence on integrated Chinese-Western medicine for primary dysmenorrhea.Integrative medicine research · 2026Article
- Use of Evidence-Based Research Approach in RCTs of Acupuncture-Related Therapies for Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Meta-Research.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2024Article
- Experiences of dysmenorrhea and its treatment among allistic and autistic menstruators: a thematic analysis.BMC women's health · 2023Article
- Immediate Analgesic Effect of Acupuncture in Patients With Primary Dysmenorrhea: A fMRI Study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
- Inflammatory Markers in Dysmenorrhea and Therapeutic Options.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Review
- Immediate Analgesic Effect of Perpendicular Needling or Transverse Needling at SP 6 in Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Pilot Study.Medical acupuncture · 2019Article
- Acupoint herbal plaster for patients with primary dysmenorrhea: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Trials · 2018Article
- Electroacupuncture is Beneficial for Primary Dysmenorrhea: The Evidence from Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This open-label randomized controlled trial was designed to compare the efficacy of acupuncture and combined oral contraceptive (COC) pill in treating moderate-to-severe primary dysmenorrhea. Fifty-two participants were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture (n = 27) or COC (n = 25) for three menstrual cycles. Mefenamic acid was prescribed as a recue analgesic drug with both groups. The statistical approach used for efficacy and safety assessments was intention-to-treat analysis. By the end of the study, both treatments had resulted in significant improvement over baselines in all outcomes, that is, maximal dysmenorrhea pain scores, days suffering from dysmenorrhea, amount of rescue analgesic used, and quality of life assessed by SF-36 questionnaire. Over the three treatment cycles, COC caused greater reduction in maximal pain scores than acupuncture, while improvements in the remaining outcomes were comparable. Responders were defined as participants whose maximal dysmenorrhea pain scores decreased at least 33% below their baseline. Response rates following both interventions at the end of the study were not statistically different. Acupuncture commonly caused minimal local side effects but did not cause any hormone-related side effects as did COC. In conclusion, acupuncture is an alternative option for relieving dysmenorrhea, especially when COC is not a favorable choice.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.