Neutral douche: A hydrotherapeutic tool to manage pain and systemic symptoms in primary dysmenorrhea – a randomised controlled study

Background and Objectives: The douche, one of the hydrotherapeutic treatment modality is commonly used by Naturopathy physicians as a treatment of choice in many cases. This study was done to assess the effect of full body neutral douche in the management of pain and systemic symptoms in adult females with primary dysmenorrhoea.

Methods: Sixty eight subjects with primary dysmenorrhoea were recruited for the study and were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group (n=34) and the control group (n=34). The experimental group received whole body neutral douche, whereas the control group followed the routine as usual. Assessments for the pain, systemic symptoms and menstrual cramps were done by using McGill Pain Questionnaire, Verbal multidimensional scoring system and analog scale for severity of pain and menstrual cramps respectively at baseline, day 30 and day 60 of intervention. Two- way repeated measures of ANOVA was performed to understand the between group changes, adjusted for the respective baseline values and age.

Result: Data was analyzed with SPSS (Version 21.0) package. Neutral douche resulted in significant improvement in pain [F(2,66)=114.564, p<0.0005, partial η2= 0.771], severity of pain [F(2,66)=70.418, p<0.0005, partial Å‹2=0.681], cramps [F(2,66)=75.986, p<0.0005, partial Å‹2=0.697] and systemic symptoms [F(2,66)=14.64, p<0.0005, partial Å‹2=0.307] as compared to the control group.

Interpretation and Conclusion: Neutral douche can be used as a non-pharmacological intervention in the management of pain and systemic symptoms in primary dysmenorrhoea.