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More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture

Background. Primary dysmenorrhea is a common gynaecological condition. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) acupuncturists commonly treat primary dysmenorrhea and dispense specific self-care advice for this condition. The impact of self-care advice on primary dysmenorrhea is unknown. Methods. 19 TCM a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Armour, Michael, Dahlen, Hannah G., Smith, Caroline A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4875987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27242909
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3467067
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author Armour, Michael
Dahlen, Hannah G.
Smith, Caroline A.
author_facet Armour, Michael
Dahlen, Hannah G.
Smith, Caroline A.
author_sort Armour, Michael
collection PubMed
description Background. Primary dysmenorrhea is a common gynaecological condition. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) acupuncturists commonly treat primary dysmenorrhea and dispense specific self-care advice for this condition. The impact of self-care advice on primary dysmenorrhea is unknown. Methods. 19 TCM acupuncture practitioners from New Zealand or Australia and 12 New Zealand women who had recently undergone acupuncture treatment for primary dysmenorrhea as part of a randomised controlled trial participated in this qualitative, pragmatic study. Focus groups and semistructured interviews were used to collect data. These were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis. Results. The overarching theme was that an acupuncture treatment consisted of “more than needles” for both practitioners and participants. Practitioners and participants both discussed the partnership they engaged in during treatment, based on openness and trust. Women felt that the TCM self-care advice was related to positive outcomes for their dysmenorrhea and increased their feelings of control over their menstrual symptoms. Conclusions. Most of the women in this study found improved symptom control and reduced pain. A contributing factor for these improvements may be an increased internal health locus of control and an increase in self-efficacy resulting from the self-care advice given during the clinical trial.
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spelling pubmed-48759872016-05-30 More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture Armour, Michael Dahlen, Hannah G. Smith, Caroline A. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med Research Article Background. Primary dysmenorrhea is a common gynaecological condition. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) acupuncturists commonly treat primary dysmenorrhea and dispense specific self-care advice for this condition. The impact of self-care advice on primary dysmenorrhea is unknown. Methods. 19 TCM acupuncture practitioners from New Zealand or Australia and 12 New Zealand women who had recently undergone acupuncture treatment for primary dysmenorrhea as part of a randomised controlled trial participated in this qualitative, pragmatic study. Focus groups and semistructured interviews were used to collect data. These were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis. Results. The overarching theme was that an acupuncture treatment consisted of “more than needles” for both practitioners and participants. Practitioners and participants both discussed the partnership they engaged in during treatment, based on openness and trust. Women felt that the TCM self-care advice was related to positive outcomes for their dysmenorrhea and increased their feelings of control over their menstrual symptoms. Conclusions. Most of the women in this study found improved symptom control and reduced pain. A contributing factor for these improvements may be an increased internal health locus of control and an increase in self-efficacy resulting from the self-care advice given during the clinical trial. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2016 2016-05-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4875987/ /pubmed/27242909 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3467067 Text en Copyright © 2016 Michael Armour et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Armour, Michael
Dahlen, Hannah G.
Smith, Caroline A.
More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture
title More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture
title_full More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture
title_fullStr More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture
title_full_unstemmed More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture
title_short More Than Needles: The Importance of Explanations and Self-Care Advice in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea with Acupuncture
title_sort more than needles: the importance of explanations and self-care advice in treating primary dysmenorrhea with acupuncture
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4875987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27242909
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3467067
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