Study of Acupuncture and Care Interventions for the Treatment of Breast Inflammation During Breastfeeding

Summary

The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that acupuncture treatment hastens recovery time from inflammatory symptoms of the breast during breastfeeding. 205 mothers with 210 cases of breast inflammation (commonly called "mastitis") during breastfeeding were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups. There were two groups where acupuncture was used and one without acupuncture. The mothers symptoms were recorded at the onset of health care contact and daily until recovery. All care interventions given, including antibiotic therapy, were monitored. Women who participated were asked to leave a breast milk sample to test for bacterial growth. It was found that acupuncture did not shorten the women's contacts with health care services but did improve their symptoms on contact days 3 and 4. It was seen in this study that only 15 % of women were prescribed antibiotics which was a very low rate of prescription compared to USA, Canada, Australia, Turkey and New Zealand where up to 100% are given antibiotics. Seven women (3.3% of those in the study) developed a breast boil and this is a similar number to a study in Australia where many more were treated by antibiotics. This could mean that many women throughout the world are given antibiotics when in fact they may recover without them. This is an important finding in relation to the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Conditions

• Mastitis

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Acupuncture treatment

PROCEDURE

Administration of oxytocin nasal spray

PROCEDURE

Improved breast milk removal

PROCEDURE

Warmth applied to breasts

PROCEDURE

Breast massage

DRUG

Anti-pyretic medication, paracetamol

DRUG

cefadroxil

DRUG

penicillin

DRUG

flucloxacillin

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Karlstad University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Linda J Kvist, PhD · Karlstads University

• Bodil Wilde Larsson, PhD · Karlstad University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2002-01-31

Completion

2004-03-31

Countries

• Sweden

Study Locations