title: Long-term effects of traditional Chinese medicine and hypnotherapy in patients with severe endometriosis--a retrospective evaluation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  15% of patients with severe endometriosis suffer from pain symptoms in spite of pharmacological and surgical treatments. In this retrospective study we aimed to assess the effectiveness of a combined therapy of Traditional Chinese medicine and hypnotherapy (systemic autoregulation therapy, SART) as a novel treatment for endometriosis-associated symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  47 patients with severe endometriosis, which were treated with SART, were followed-up by standardized telephone interviews. Follow-up data were compared to baseline assessments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  median follow-up time was 5 years. The median intensity of endometriosis-associated pain had decreased from 8 to 3 points on a 0-10 point visual analogue scale (p < 0.001). 18 patients (38%) were free of pain, and the number of patients using pain medication had decreased from 38 to 19 (from 81% to 40%). 17 out of the 31 women trying for a pregnancy (55%) showed a total of 21 births at follow-up. Exploratory analyses revealed that larger decreases in pain scores correlated significantly with longer treatment durations, suggesting a dose-response relationship.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  treatment of endometriosis with a holistic approach of Chinese medicine and hypnotherapy may result in a substantial reduction of pain as well as increased birth rates in patients with therapy-refractory endometriosis. Randomized controlled studies to further investigate the effectiveness of SART are highly warranted.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Technical University Munich, Germany. karin.meissner@med.lmu.de
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Meissner
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Böhling
authors.forename: Annemaria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schweizer-Arau
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013995:Time; D016896:Treatment Outcome