comparison of the effect of fish oil and ibuprofen on treatment of severe pain in primary dysmenorrhea

background: primary dysmenorrhea is common among young girls and child-bearing women. the purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of fish oil and ibuprofen on the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. methods: this clinical trial study was done on students of babol university of medical sciences in 2010. one hundred- twenty students who had moderate and severe dysmenorrhea were randomly divided in two groups. the first group (60 girls) received 1000 mg/day fish oil capsule in all her cycle days and the second group received 400 mg ibuprofen when their pain started (duration of this study was 2 months). student t-test, mann whitney and freidman tests were used when appropriate. this clinical trial was registered in the iranian registry of clinical trials (www.irct.ir) (ir21101133004n4). results: there was a significant difference between the intensity of pain before and after treatment by ibuprofen (p=0.0001) and fish oil (p=0.0001). furthermore, the reduction of pain in fish oil recipient was higher than the ibv prefer group (p=0.0001).conclusion: the results show that the efficacy of fish oil is better than ibuprofen on treatment of severe pain in primary dysmenorrhea.