The Effect Dry Cupping Therapy at Acupoint BL23 on the Intensity of Postpartum Low Back Pain in Primiparous Women Based on Two Types of Questionnaires, 2012; A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: continuous low back pain is associated with the symptoms of the pregnancy period.in spite of the improvement of low back pain within 6 months after the delivery, some women maydevelop chronic problems. this study aimed to investigate the effect of dry cupping therapy at bl23point on the intensity of low back pain in primiparous women.methods: in the present randomized clinical trial, 100 samples were randomly allocated to either thecupping therapy or the control group (each containing 50 subjects). cupping therapy was performedfor 15-20 minutes every day up to 4 consecutive times. visual analogue scale (vas) and short-formmcgill pain questionnaire were completed by the two groups before the intervention and immediately,24 hours, and 2 weeks after that. then, the data were entered into the spss statistical software (v. 16)and analyzed using chi-square test and repeated measures anova.results: according to vas, the mean intensity of low back pain in the cupping therapy group decreasedfrom 7.8±2.7 before the intervention to 3.7±1.8, 2.5±1.7, and 1.4±1.4 immediately, 24 hours, and 2 weeksafter the intervention, respectively. besides, these measures were respectively obtained as 31.8±10.8,9.0±6.7, 7.5±6.6, and 3.6±4.1 in the short-form mcgill pain questionnaire. according to repeated measuresanova, a significant difference was observed among the various stages of follow-up (p=0.01).conclusion: the study results showed cupping therapy to be effective in sedation of pain. thus, it canbe used as an effective treatment for reducing the low back pain.