the effect dry cupping therapy at acupoint bl23 on the intensity of postpartum low back pain in primiparous women based on two types of questionnaires, 2012; a randomized clinical trial

background and objectives: continuous low back pain is obviously related to the symptoms of the pregnancy period. in spite of the spontaneous improvement of the pain in less than 6 months after the delivery, some women experience chronic problems. thus, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of dry cupping therapy at the bl23 point on the intensity of low back pain in the primiparous using visual analogue scale and short-form mcgill pain questionnaire.  materials and methods: in the present clinical trial, 100 samples were randomly allocated randomly to either the cupping therapy or the control group. cupping therapy was performed for 15-20 minutes every other day up to 4 consecutive times. visual analogue scale and short-form mcgill pain questionnaire were completed by the two groups before the intervention and immediately, 24 hours, and 2 weeks after that. then, the data were entered into the spss statistical software (v. 16) and analyzed using chi-square test and repeated measures anova. results: according to the visual analogue scale, the mean intensity of low back pain in the cupping therapy group decreased from 7.8 + 2.7 before the intervention to 3.7 + 1.8, 2.5 + 1.7, and 1.4 + 1.4 immediately, 24 hours, and 2 weeks after the intervention, respectively. besides, these measures were respectively obtained as 31.8 + 10.8, 9.0 + 6.7, 7.5 + 6.6, and 3.6 + 4.1 in the short-form mcgill pain questionnaire. according to repeated measures anova, a significant difference was observed among the various stages of follow-up (p=0.01).