Abstract

Patients who receive chemotherapy perceive nausea and vomiting (N&V) to be one of the most problematic outcomes of chemotherapy. Even with the administration of a prophylactic antiemetic protocol, up to 33% of the patients experience emesis in the first 24 hours after receiving strong chemotherapy agents. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of acupressure on the Neiguan Point (P6) on the incidence, frequency, duration and intensity of nausea, vomiting, and retching associated with chemotherapy in chemotherapy-naïve patients. The methodology was a single blind, randomized treatment and no treatment control, repeated measures design. The sample of patients (N = 25), ages 39 to 71, were selected from two outpatient oncology clinics and a women's cancer center located in a large northeastern, metropolitan hospital. The Rhodes Index of Nausea, Vomiting, and Retching was used to measure N&V before treatment and four times after chemotherapy was received. Chi Square analysis and sample t-tests revealed no significant differences between the two groups. However, the mean for each item on the Rhodes Index for the experimental group was often times lower than the mean for the control group suggesting that acupressure may assist in the controlling N&V associated with chemotherapy. Further data will be collected with the goal of achieving a sample large enough to derive statistically significant results.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3023425; ProQuest document ID: 304760467. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Christine D. Meyer, PhD, RN

Sigma Membership

Eta

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Randomized Controlled Trial

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Chemotherapy Side-effects, Alternative Treatment of Nausea, Cancer Patients

Advisor

Gladys L. Husted

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

Duquesne University

Degree Year

2001

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2020-07-06

Full Text of Presentation

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