Study of Nurse and Patient-Applied Acupressure to Reduce Anxiety in Adults Undergoing Cancer Treatment

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are evaluating acupressure as a way to reduce anxiety related to chemotherapy in patients with cancer. Anxiety can worsen symptoms like nausea and lower quality of life, and some patients prefer non-medicine approaches. This trial compares true acupressure with sham placebo acupressure to understand its effect on anxiety during cancer-directed therapy. Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups one receives true acupressure for 10 minutes during the study, and the other receives sham acupressure for the same duration. Patients in both groups can choose to learn how to do acupressure on themselves at home, with instructions to perform self-acupressure sessions twice daily for seven days. Throughout the study, participants complete questionnaires before and after the intervention to measure anxiety levels and related symptoms. The main outcome is the change in acute anxiety over up to two weeks. Researchers also assess nausea and the effectiveness of self-administered acupressure. The study includes monitoring the associations between anxiety changes and patient characteristics, with all activities carried out during the treatment period and short-term follow-up.

Acupressure for the Reduction of Anxiety in Patients Receiving Cancer-Directed Therapy