Table 2.
Characteristics of interview participants.
| Overall (n = 12) |
Group 1 (n = 4) Three weekly manual acupuncture treatments each cycle |
Group 2 (n = 3) Three weekly electroacupuncture treatments each cycle |
Group 3 (n = 4) Three manual acupuncture treatments in the seven days prior to menses each cycle |
Group 4 (n = 1) Three electroacupuncture treatments in the seven days prior to menses each cycle |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (y) | 30.9 | 32.1 | 29.8 | 32.5 | 29 |
|
| |||||
| Responder | |||||
| Responder | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Nonresponder | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
|
| |||||
| Trial site | |||||
| Auckland | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Wellington | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
|
| |||||
| Previous use of acupuncture | |||||
| Yes | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| No | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
|
| |||||
| Adverse event reported during trial | |||||
| Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No | 12 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
|
| |||||
| Expectation of benefit from acupuncture | |||||
| Unsure | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Probably help | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Definitely help | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Group is the group allocated to the women in the randomised controlled trial. All groups received the same number of individualised TCM acupuncture treatments (12) over three menstrual cycles. All groups had one acupuncture treatment during the first 48 hours of menses each cycle.