The effect of acupressure at the Sanyinjiao point (SP6) on primary dysmenorrhea in students resident in dormitories of Tabriz

BACKGROUND There are two types of primary dysmenorrhea (spasmodic and congestive) which differ from each other in terms of the occurrence time in menstrual cycle, pain quality and other symptoms. The present study aimed to determine the effect of acupressure at the Sanyinjiao point (SP-6) on severity of menstrual symptoms (primary outcome) and the duration of resting time as well as the number of ibuprofen consumption (secondary outcome) in the two types of primary dysmenorrhea. METHODS This was a clustered randomized controlled trial on 72 eligible students residing in dormitories of public universities of Tabriz, Iran. Determining the type of primary dysmenorrhea using a Menstrual symptoms questionnaire (MSQ), 36 participants which suffered from each type of dysmenorrhea were enrolled from the four dormitories. The dormitories were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. No intervention was carried out at the first cycle. During the two next cycles, Sanyinjiao point of the subjects in the intervention group was pressed for twenty minutes at the time of pain. The subjects in both groups were allowed to consume ibuprofen, if needed. During these three cycles, the participants recorded and reported menstrual symptoms severity, duration of resting time and the number of the used ibuprofen. RESULTS The severity of menstrual symptoms and duration of resting time in the 2(nd) and 3(rd) cycles were significantly reduced more than control groups for both spasmodic and congestive types of primary dysmenorrhea. In addition, the aver-age numbers of ibuprofen pills taken by both intervention groups was significantly less than the control groups. There was no significant difference between the two intervention groups in terms of any of the outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Acupressure is effective on lowering the symptoms of dysmenorrhea and duration of resting time almost equally in both spasmodic and congestive types. Therefore, using this method either alone or along with other methods is recommended to treat dysmenorrhea.