| Methods |
Random ‐ unstated
Parallel design
27 women randomised |
| Participants |
Inclusion: dysmenorrhoea, abdominal pain, women who were not previous users of TENS
Exclusion: OCP use, any precautions or contraindications to treatment, only lower back pain
Age: 19‐27, mean 22.1 years
Location: USA |
| Interventions |
1. Conventional high‐freq TENS ‐ 50‐100 Hz, narrow pulse 40‐75 μsec, intensity produces no muscle contractions
2. Acupuncture‐like low‐frequency TENS ‐ 1‐4 Hz, pulse 100‐250 μsec, intensity to tolerance
3. Control ‐ placebo TENS
Location: conventional and control used electrodes on abdomen, acupuncture‐like TENS used points spleen 6 and 10 (legs)
Duration: 30 min ‐ until pain returned |
| Outcomes |
Pain ratings ‐ pre and post treatment
Duration of pain relief |
| Notes |
No information on the baseline similarities of the randomised groups |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
"randomly assigned" no further details. |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
Unclear. |
| Blinding?
All outcomes |
High risk |
No details of blinding. |
| Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes |
Low risk |
All patients were analysed. |
| Free of selective reporting? |
Low risk |
All relevant outcomes were reported. |
