Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Dysmenorrhea and Reflexology

Dysmenorrhea
Research was conducted on the effect of reflexology on dysmenorrhea at the Midwifery Department of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. 120 college students were divided into three groups: a reflexology group and two drug groups.

“Adverse effect of medical treatments and their failure rates of 20% to 25% in treating menstrual pain have lead many women to seek complementary and alternative treatment options for primary dysmenorrhea. So in order to identification of efficacy of methods with less complication and low cost, one of the manual methods (reflexology) and Iranian herbal medicine (menstrugol) for com- parison with standard treatment of dysmenorrhea (NSADS) were chosen.”Three consecutive menstrual cycles were observed. Reflexology was applied for 40 minutes on two days, 10 days before menses for two cycles and then not applied before a third. “Each subject in drug groups consumed menstrugol capsule (500 mg) and Ibuprofen tab (400 mg) as same orders (one cap or tab per 8 hours for two days during 3 continuous cycles).”

Reflexology was found to produce results “superior” to both menstrugol and Ibuprofen when its effects continued during the third menstrual cycle where no reflexology or drugs were administered.

Pain was assessed before and after interventions with the MacGill Pain Questionnaire. Data was analyzed by ANOVA.



Barbara and Kevin Kunz

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