Objective: To observe the influence of acupuncture needle stimulation-induced sharp pain on the curative effect of acupuncture therapy for primary dysmenorrhea (PD) patients with cold damp stagnation syndrome (CDSS).
Methods: A total of 87 PD patients with CDSS experiencing abdominal pain (> or =40 mm in visual analogue scale, VAS) were randomly asigned to deqi-expectation group and no-deqi-expectation group which were further divided into deqi-expectation + sharp pain (n = 31), deqi-expectation + no-sharp pain (n = 12), no-deqi-expectation + sharp pain (n = 17), no-deqi-expectation + no- sharp pain (n =27) groups. On the first day of abdominal pain attack, bilateral Sanyinjiao (SP 6) were punctured respectively with thicker needles with deeper insertion for deqi-expectation patients and thin filiform needles with shallow insertion for no-deqi-expectation patients. The needles were manipulated for 30 s with uniform reinforcing-reducing method for all the deqi-expectation patients, which was repeated once again every 10 min during 30 min of needle retention. The VAS was used to evaluate the patients' abdominal pain severity before treatment and 0, 10 min after acupuncture needle withdrawal.
Results: Following acupuncture stimulation of SP 6, the VAS scores of menstrual pain at both 0 min and 10 min after withdrawing acupuncture needles were significantly decreased in the deqi-expectation + sharp pain group, deqi-expectation + no-sharp pain group, no-deqi-expectation+sharp pain group and no-deqi-expectation + no-sharp pain group (P<0. 05), and that of 10 min post-needle withdrawal was markedly lower than that of 0 min in the deqi-expectation + sharp pain group ( P<0. 05). No significant differences were found in the VAS difference values at different time-points between deqi-expectation plus sharp pain and deqi- expectation + no-sharp pain groups, and between no-deqi-expectation + sharp pain and no-deqi-expectation + no-sharp pain groups (P>0.05).
Conclusion: Acupuncture stimulation of SP 6 has an immediate analgesic effect in PD women with cold damp stagnation syndrome, which was not affected by needling-induced sharp pain, deqi-expectation, and thicker or thinner needle with shallow and deeper insertion.