1. Auricular acupressure relieves anxiety and fatigue, and reduces cortisol levels in post-caesarean section women: A single-blind, randomised controlled study.
- Author
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Kuo, Shu-Yu, Tsai, Su-Hua, Chen, Shu-Ling, and Tzeng, Ya-Ling
- Subjects
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FATIGUE prevention , *ACUPUNCTURE , *ANXIETY , *APGAR score , *BLOOD pressure measurement , *CESAREAN section , *CHI-squared test , *STATISTICAL correlation , *EAR , *HEART beat , *HYDROCORTISONE , *IMMUNOCHEMISTRY , *POSTNATAL care , *PSYCHOLOGICAL tests , *RESEARCH funding , *STATISTICAL sampling , *SCALE analysis (Psychology) , *SELF-evaluation , *SPHYGMOMANOMETERS , *T-test (Statistics) , *MATHEMATICAL variables , *SAMPLE size (Statistics) , *EDUCATIONAL attainment , *RANDOMIZED controlled trials , *TREATMENT effectiveness , *PRE-tests & post-tests , *BLIND experiment , *DATA analysis software , *STATE-Trait Anxiety Inventory , *STATISTICAL models , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,ANXIETY prevention - Abstract
Background Anxiety and fatigue adversely affect women's postpartum recovery, but few effective non-pharmacological interventions are known to relieve these two common and unpleasant symptoms. Objectives To examine the efficacy of an auricular acupressure intervention provided during early postpartum in reducing anxiety, fatigue levels, cortisol levels, blood pressure, and heart rate. Design A single-blind, randomised controlled trial. Setting A 40-bed postpartum unit. Participants Women who underwent caesarean section were randomly allocated to two groups: intervention (auricular pressure, n = 40), and control (usual care, n = 40). Methods The intervention group received auricular acupressure on the shenmen acupoint twice a day (9 AM and 5 PM), and the control group received usual postpartum care. Serum cortisol levels were assessed by immunochemiluminescence, with blood pressure and heart rate assessed by electric sphygmomanometer. Anxiety and fatigue symptoms were assessed using the State Anxiety subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Fatigue Continuum Form, respectively. Results Of the 76 women who completed the study, those who received auricular acupressure had significantly lower mean cortisol levels (mean difference = 4 μg/dl, p < 0.05), heart rate (mean difference = 9.2 beats/min, p < 0.001), anxiety symptoms (mean difference = 3.8, p < 0.01), and fatigue symptoms (mean difference = 7.1, p < 0.01) than women in the control group at 5 days postpartum. Conclusions Auricular acupressure is an effective non-pharmacological method for reducing cortisol levels, heart rate, anxiety, and fatigue in early postpartum after caesarean section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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