Background and Objective: The Fatigue related to cancer is one of the common problems of both patients and care-givers. Nowadays, acupressure as a complementary medicine has become more common in patients with cancer for balancing and improving body energy. This study aimed to assess the effect of acupressure on the fatigue of patients with cancer.
Material and Methods: This blinded- randomized clinical trial was conducted on 85 patients with cancer in hematology ward of Beheshti hospital of Hamadan. The subjects were located in three groups of intervention, sham and control. First, the fatigue level was measured by Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) as a baseline. Then, real acupressure in intervention group and unreal acupressure in sham group was performed for 10 days and only routine cares were given in control group. The fatigue amount was measured on the fifth and tenth days. The Data was analyzed by SPSS software version 16, using paired T- test and repeated measurements.
Results: Acupressure was effective on the fatigue of patients with cancer (p<0.001). However, conducting unreal acupressure in sham group was effective as well (p<0.01), but the routine cares in control group was not effective and even in some cases led to increased fatigue.
Conclusion: Acupressure can be used as a complementary therapy to decrease the fatigue in the patients with cancer considering its low cost, safety and simplicity.
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