Background:Anxiety has negative effects on mental and physical performance, quality of life, duration of hospitalization, and even on the treatment of patients with cancer.Objectives:Today acupressure is widely used to treat anxiety. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of acupressure on anxiety in patients with cancer.Patients and Methods:A double-blind randomized clinical trial was conducted on 85 patients hospitalized with 3 groups including acupressure group (n = 27), sham group (n = 28), and control group (n = 30) in the hematologic ward of Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Hamadan, Iran, in 2013. The sampling permuted-block randomization with triple block was used. The anxiety of the patients in the experimental, sham, and control groups were measured with Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Then, real acupressure was performed in the experimental group and fake acupressure in the sham group, and only routine care was provided for the control group. Anxiety of the patients was also assessed at 5 and 10 days after the intervention. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by SPSS software using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc least significant difference (LSD) test.Results:According to the findings, the mean level of anxiety before the intervention between groups were matched (P > 0.05). Acupressure had a significant influence on the anxiety in the experimental group at 5 (45.30 ± 7.14) and 10 days (43.48 ± 6.82) after the intervention (P < 0.05). However, it did not have a significant impact on their covert anxiety (45.48 ± 7.92 at 5th day vs 45.63 ± 8.08 at 10th day, P > 0.05). No significant differences were observed in the fake points regarding overt and covert anxiety of patients in the sham group (overt anxiety; 47.57 ± 7.85 at 5th day vs. 46.71 ± 7.32 at 10th day, P > 0.05) (covert anxiety; 47.96 ± 6.33 at 5th day vs. 46.89 ± 6.94 at 10th day, P > 0.05). Moreover, the routine care provided for the control group did not have any effect on the overt and covert anxiety of the patients (P > 0.05).Conclusions:Acupressure is recommended as a complementary therapy to reduce anxiety in patients with cancer because of its low cost, safety, and simplicity.

Patients undergoing spinal column surgery, experience severe postoperative pain. One of the special methods of pain control is use of a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump. Studies show that despite this pump, patients suffer from moderate to severe pain. Therefore, the teaching patients how to use the pump by nurses is essential. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of patient education about patient-controlled analgesia pump preoperative on severity of pain, nausea and vomiting after spinal column surgery. Methods: The present study was a randomized controlled trial during which 60 candidate patients of Spinal column surgery hospitalized in Shahid Fatemi hospital in Ardebil, were selected by accessible method and randomly assigned into two groups of 30 individuals, intervention and control group. Both groups received routine training in the use of the pump in the recovery department, but the intervention group received a 15-minute face-to-face intervention session using a sample of the PCA pump. Postoperative pain intensity, nausea, and vomiting in three times, 2, 4, 24 hours after surgery were assessed and compared. SPSS 16 was used to analyze the data. Results: The findings showed that there was a significant difference between the control and intervention groups regarding the severity of pain in times of 2, 4, and 24 hours postoperative (P<0.001). Pain severity in intervention group was decreased compared to control group. However, there was no significant difference in nausea and vomiting frequency between the two groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: Training the use of patient-controlled analgesia pump before operation, without changing the severity of nausea and vomiting, reduces pain after spinal column surgery. Therefore, it is recommended that the way of using the pump, be taught before operation.