SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1650158
The clinical value of Acupuncture Combined with Wenjing Decoction in the Treatment of Primary Dysmenorrhea in Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Provisionally accepted
- 1Sanming Integrated Medicine Hospital, Sanming, China
- 2Longhua Hospital Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
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Objective :To conduct a systematic evaluation on the clinical efficacy of the combined treatment of acupuncture and Wenjing Decoction for primary dysmenorrhea of cold congealing and blood stasis type by using the Meta-analysis research method, so as to provide references for clinical treatment. Methods: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the treatment of PD using Wenjing decoction plus minus acupuncture in multiple databases was searched from January 1, 2000 to March 1, 2025. Outcome measurements encompassed serum hormone levels, pain scores, uterine artery blood flow, and total effective rate. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the risk of bias tool. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed with the Cochrane collaboration tool. Review Manager 5.4 software was employed for quantitative synthesis, and funnel plots were utilized to evaluate potential reporting bias. Results: 11 RCTs with 1,024 primary dysmenorrhea patients were included. Wenjing Decoction combined with acupuncture in the treatment of PD has obvious advantages over the control group in improving the effective rate [RR = 1.24], 95%CI (1.06, 1.42), I² = 34%, P = 0.15], increasing the level of PGE₂ [MD = 5.9, 95%CI (2.27, 9.52), I² = 63%, P = 0.07], reducing the level of PGF₂α [MD = -11.96, 95%CI (-25.21, -1.28), I² = 63%, P = 0.07], reducing pain score [-4.13, 95%CI (-6.42, -1.84), I² = 99%, P < 0.00001], and improving uterine artery blood flow RI [MD = -0.09, 95%CI (-0.12, -0.07), I² = 18%, P = 0.27], uterine artery blood flow PI [MD = -0.39, 95%CI (-0.44, -0.33), I² = 0%, P = 0.41]. The differences are statistically significant (P < 0.05). 2 Conclusions: The combination of acupuncture and Wenjing Decoction in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea (PD) is superior to simple Western medicine treatment in reducing the level of PGF2a, increasing the level of PGE2, decreasing the pain score, improving the resistance index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI) of uterine artery blood flow as well as the total effective rate. However, the methodological quality of the studies included was undesirable, necessitating further verification with more well-designed and high-quality multicenter RCTs.
Keywords: Primary dysmenorrhea, Wenjing decoction, Acupuncture Therapy, Meta-analysis, Integrative Medicine
Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Zhou, Qiu, Hu, Xie, Wen and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mei Zhao, Sanming Integrated Medicine Hospital, Sanming, China
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