Is acupuncture in addition to conventional medicine effective as pain treatment for endometriosis? A randomised controlled crossover trial

Non-pharmacological approach to pain in endometriosis

“…Results of presented studies have shown that acupuncture was effective to treat endometriosis pain, but two of them have reinforced the need for additional research 8,9 . One of them has concluded that the small sample size used in this pilot study had limited the reaching of final conclusions, but has emphasized the receptivity of young endometriosis patients to the treatment 8 .…”

“…Results of this query are summarized in table 1. Three studies have evaluated acupuncture to control endometriosis pain [7][8][9] . In the 2002 study, 67 patients with endometriosis and dysmenorrhea were divided in two groups being 37 submitted to ear acupuncture (EAT) and 30 treated with Chinese drugs (CD).…”

“…Eight weeks and 6 months later, pain decrease in the active group remained slightly better, but the difference between groups was not statistically significant [active versus sham 8 weeks later: -4.3 (3.6) versus -3.8 (1.7); active versus sham 6 months later: -3.6 (3.0) versus -2.8 (3.8)] 8 . In a study by Rubi-Klein et al 9 , 83 patients were divided in two groups and each has received two units of 10 acupuncture sessions, twice a week, for five weeks. Group 1 was made up of 42 patients with endometriosis and group 2 was made up of 41.…”

Qualidade de vida em pacientes com endometriose: um estudo de revisão

“…Nesse sentido, seria conveniente e necessário desenvolver abordagens para gestão da dor. Um estudo conduzido em 2010 mostrou que a acupuntura promoveu uma redução estatisticamente significante na dor associada à endometriose, com consequente melhora na QV das pacientes (24) . Outra modalidade seria a terapia cognitivocomportamental, definida como uma abordagem psicológica que visa diminuir a dor (25) .…”

“…Um relato de caso (26) mostrou que o tratamento multidisciplinar que abrangeu o uso de fármacos, inativação dos pontos-gatilho (infiltração com anestésicos, agulhamento seco, acupuntura), fisioterapia, reeducação postural e suporte psicossocial proporcionou melhora significativa da dor e da QV de uma paciente de 45 anos que exibia DPC há seis anos. Esses trabalhos (24,25,26) mostraram a importância de profissionais da fisioterapia e psicologia para o tratamento de pacientes com endometriose. Além da DPC, a dor durante o intercurso sexual afeta a sexualidade das pacientes.…”