The following is a summary of “Self-Acupressure for Symptom Management in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review,” published in the JULY 2023 issue of Pain Management by Cheng, et al.
Acupressure is a nonpharmacological intervention commonly used to alleviate symptoms in patients with cancer. However, the effects of self-acupressure on cancer symptom management remained unclear. For a study, researchers sought to summarize the current experimental evidence on self-acupressure for symptom management in cancer patients.
A search was conducted in eight electronic databases to identify experimental studies that examined self-acupressure for cancer patients with symptoms. The included studies were published in peer-reviewed English or Chinese journals. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias assessment tool and the JBI critical appraisal checklist for quasi-experimental studies. Data were extracted and synthesized narratively, following predefined criteria. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication checklist was used to report the intervention characteristics.
A total of 11 studies were included in this review, with six classified as feasibility or pilot trials. The methodological quality of the included studies was found to be suboptimal. There was significant heterogeneity in acupressure training, acupoint selection, intervention duration, dosage, and timing. Self-acupressure was associated with reduced nausea (P = 0.006) and vomiting (P = 0.001).
The limited evidence from the review hinders definitive conclusions regarding the effectiveness of self-acupressure for cancer symptoms. Future research should focus on developing standardized protocols for intervention delivery, improving the methodology of self-acupressure trials, and conducting large-scale studies to advance the science of self-acupressure for cancer symptom management.
Source: jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(23)00402-5/fulltext
