Acupuncture for Primary Dysmenorrhea: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Table 2

Characteristics of systematic reviews.

First author (year)/country	language	Number of RCTs included	Quality assessment tool for original studies included in SR	Intervention	Comparisons	Primary outcome	Adverse effects	Data analysis methods	Authors conclusions
Cho 2010 [8]/South Korea	English	27 RCTs	Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias.	Acupuncture	Placebo control	Pain relief	No serious adverse events	N/A	The evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture for the treatment of PD is not convincing compared with sham acupuncture.
Chen 2013 [11]/China	English	8 RCTs	Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias.	Acupuncture /acupressure	Placebo control	Pain relief (VAS)	N/A	Meta- analysis	Acupuncture at the SP6 acupoint may not be more effective in relieving pain than acupuncture at an unrelated acupoint. Acupressure at the SP6 acupoint may provide more effective pain relief than that of control treatment.
Jiang 2013 [9]/China	English	8 RCTs	Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias.	Acupressure	Placebo control	pain relief (VAS or other scale)	Not reported in review results	Meta- analysis	No convincing evidence for acupuncture in the treatment of PD
Liu 2017 [10]/China	English	23 RCTs	Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias.	Acupuncture	Placebo control	VAS, a verbal rating scale (VRS), or a numerical rating scale (NRS)	Have 3 side effects, such as fainting during acupuncture, a hematoma, and a needling sensation after acupuncture	Meta- analysis	Acupuncture may be effective for PD
Yu 2017 [12]/China	English	9 RCTs	Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias.	EA	Placebo control; waiting-list	Pain relief (VAS)	N/A	Meta- analysis	EA can provide considerable immediate analgesia effect for PD.