Pharmacological treatments are not effective for all women and therefore, the objective of this study was to assess and compare the effectiveness of kinesio tape and auricular therapy to decrease pain and drug intake in women with primary dysmenorrhoea.~A randomized controlled trial was conducted. 114 university women from 18 to 30 years old were randomized to 5 groups: control, kinesio tape, placebo kinesio tape, auricular therapy and placebo auricular therapy. The study was carried out during 4 menstrual cycles of pre-treatment phase, 4 menstrual cycles of treatment phase and two follow up phases (first and third cycle after the treatments were completed). During the treatment phase, the techniques were applied during 72h in each cycle.~The primary outcome measures were: Mean pain intensity of the 3 first days of bleeding, maximum pain intensity, number of painful days and dose of drug intake measured with the Visual Analogue Scale.
This study analyse the effectiveness of auricular therapy vs. kinesio tape treatment for pain management of women with primary dysmenorrhoea.