[ effect of foot reflex zone therapy on the intensity of premenstrual syndrome symptoms in students of girls hostels of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, 2010]

ABSTRACT

Premenstrual syndrome [PMS] is a common disease in women. Because of unknown etiology of PMS, various medical treatments and clinical trials have been conducted to treat and prevent this syndrome. This research was performed to determine the effect of foot reflexology [reflex zone therapy] on the physical symptoms of premenstrual in students of girls hostels of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. This single blind randomized controlled clinical trial was carried out on 120 students with PMS history. After confirming the PMS, through registry of daily status [Dickerson questionnaires] in two menstruation cycles, the subjects were randomly divided into two groups of actual and false zone therapy. Actual group received 30 minutes of the treatment once per week for 8 subsequent weeks. Data were analyzed by Chi-square, exact fisher test and repeated measurement of ANOVA using SPSS-ver15. Decreased menstrual symptoms were observed in 25.26 percent of cases in actual reflex zone therapy and 3.8 percent of cases in false zone therapy. Based on the results and attended to this symptom's spread, the necessity of attention to reflex zone therapy, as a substitute and complement treatment, is clear