The Effect of Acupressure on Pain, Nausea-Vomiting, and Mental Well-Being in Oncology Patients

The Effect of Self-Administered Acupressure and Acupressure Applied by Therapist on Pain, Nausea-Vomiting, and Mental Well-Being in Oncology Patients: A Three-Arm Randomized Controlled Study

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare the effect of self acupressure and acupressure applied by therapists on pain, nausea-vomiting, and mental well-being in oncology patients.

For this purpose, 93 individuals with stage 1-stage 3 cancer will be included in the study.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Is acupressure effective on pain, nausea-vomiting and mental well-being in oncology patients? Is there a difference in the effectiveness of self-acupressure and acupressure applied by therapist on pain, nausea-vomiting and mental well-being? The participants will be included in the study as three groups, namely the self-acupressure group, the acupressure group applied by the therapist, and the control group.

Self-acupressure participants will self-administer acupressure. In the acupressure group, which will be applied by the therapist, acupressure will be applied to the participants by researchers who have acupressure certificate.

In the control group, acupressure etc. No additional application will be made. Visual analog scale, nausea-vomiting and retching index, and mental well-being scales will be applied to all groups at the beginning of the study and three days after the study.

Large Intestine Meridian 4th point (Hegu/LI4), Pericardium Meridian/Neiguan (P6) point and Yintang (EX-HN 3) point will be used for acupressure application in the research.

Inclusion Criteria:

• ≥18 years
• Cancer patients without distant metastases in stage-1, stage-2 and stage-3 who have received at least one course of chemotherapy
• Pain degree 4 and above (will be evaluated with a visual analog scale)
• Nausea-vomiting degree of 4 and above (will be evaluated with a visual analog scale)
• Receiving standard antiemetic and standard analgesic treatment (All patients included in the study should receive similar treatment.)
• No previous acupressure experience
• Absence of any wound or lesion in the area where acupressure will be applied.
• Not using a different complementary approach during the collection of research data
• Those who signed the Informed Consent Form/Written Consent Form
• Patients without any psychiatric diagnosis will be included in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• < 18 years old
• Those who have not received chemotherapy before
• Pain grade below 4 (will be evaluated with a visual analog scale)
• Nausea-vomiting degree below 4 (will be evaluated with a visual analog scale)
• Receiving different antiemetic and analgesic treatments
• Previous acupressure experience
• Any wound or lesion in the area where acupressure will be applied
• Using a complementary approach other than acupressure at the time research data was collected
• Those who did not sign the Informed Consent Form/Written Consent Form
• Patients with any psychiatric diagnosis will not be included in the study.