• Complement Ther Med · Feb 2019

    Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study

    Efficacy of rhythmical massage in comparison to heart rate variability biofeedback in patients with dysmenorrhea-A randomized, controlled trial.

    • Jan Vagedes, Aurelia Fazeli, Anna Boening, Eduard Helmert, Bettina Berger, and David Martin.
    • ARCIM Institute, Filderstadt, Germany; Tübingen University Children´s Hospital, Germany; Dept of Pediatrics, Filderklinik, Filderstadt, Germany. Electronic address: j.vagedes@arcim-institute.de.
    • Complement Ther Med. 2019 Feb 1; 42: 438-444.

    Background20-90% of all women suffer from dysmenorrhea. Standard therapy of primary dysmenorrhea (PD) are NSAIDs and oral contraceptives, effective but not without possible side effects.ObjectiveTo examine the efficacy of rhythmical massage (Anthroposophic Medicine) and heart rate variability biofeedback compared to usual care (control group) on pain intensity in women with primary dysmenorrhea.MethodsThis was a three-arm randomized controlled study. Both interventions (rhythmical massage once a week or HRV biofeedback 15 min daily) were carried out over a period of three months. The third group (control) applied usual care. The primary outcome were between-group differences in mean pain intensity (detected by a Numeric Rating Scale, NRS) during menstruation after three months (post-assessment, t2). Secondary outcomes were the use of analgesics, quality of life (SF-12) and heart rate variability.ResultsThe study involved 60 women, mean age 29.7 years, SD 8.0 (n = 23 rhythmical massage, n = 20 biofeedback, n = 17 control). For the primary outcome there was a significant difference between the groups after three months (p = .005). Bonferroni adjusted post-hoc tests revealed a significant difference between rhythmical massage and control group (mean difference: -1.61; 95 CI: -2.77/-0.44; p = .004; ES: -0.80). No significant differences were found between rhythmical massage and biofeedback (mean difference: -0.71; 95 CI: -1.82/ 0.40; p = .361; ES: -0.34) and between biofeedback and control group (mean difference: -0.90; 95 CI: -2.10/-0.30; p = .211; ES: -0.51). For the secondary outcomes no significant differences were found between the groups at t2. The drop-out rate was higher in the biofeedback group (n = 6) than in the massage (n = 2) or the control group (n = 4).ConclusionPreliminary evidence suggests that rhythmical massage might improve pain intensity after 12 weeks compared to usual care.Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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