Fig 1.
This study is a randomized, drug-controlled, open-labeled clinical trial. 152 eligible patients were randomly assigned to either the moxibustion group or the drug-control group. After treatment for 3 months, menstrual pain intensity measured by VAS and menstrual intensity were assessed to evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion for pain relief as compared with painkillers. Menstrual pain-associated serum markers/chemical compounds were tested as another secondary outcome. The follow-up lasted for 3 months after treatment.
Fig 2.
Timeline of treatment and follow-up.
For both groups, the treatment course lasted for three months (M1-M3). After the completion of treatment, there’s a three-month follow-up period (M4-M6).
Table 1.
Baseline characteristics for participants.
Table 2.
Primary and secondary study outcomes by treatment group.
Fig 3.
Pain intensity change at different time point.
By employing a 3-month moxibustion treatment, menstrual pain intensity and its related symptoms were significantly improved. In the treatment course (the 1st and 2nd month), drug overweighed moxibustion treatment in terms of controlling pain severity, but at the end of the 3-month treatment, the improvement in moxibustion group was not significantly different to the drug control group. Moreover, the effect of moxibustion sustained to 3 months after treatment.
Table 3.
Changes of PD-related markers in serum.