Acupressure App – Does it really alleviate menstrual cramps?

The media is abuzz over a study reporting that use of a cell phone app to train women in self-acupressure is effective as pain medication for treating menstrual cramps. The Android app is called AKUD and is written in German, so unless du sprichst Deutch, it won’t do you much good. But let’s ignore that for now. Here’s the study intervention: The study intervention Participants received a menstrual tracking App that included instructions on acupressure for cramp relief. They also got one-on-one instruction on the location of specific acupressure points and use of acupressure using drawings and video. The App reminded them to apply acupressure starting five days before the anticipated menstruation. Control participants received a version of the app that did not include acupressure info and got usual care. Both groups reported a reduction in menstrual pain, but participants who used the acupressure-containing app had a greater reduction in menstrual cramps compared to those who did not get the app to use, and use of birth control pills to control cramps was higher in the non-app group. Note that menstrual pain was not eliminated by use of the app, So does acupressure help menstrual cramps? I don’t know. Why? Because the study did not include an appropriate control. The right control would have been to give controls a sham app that taught them ‘acupressure’, but used the wrong acupressure points.  This would have controlled for what may b...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Alternative Medicine Women's Health app cell phone menstrual cramps Source Type: blogs