Comparison of two methods of complementary medicine on postoperative pain and anxiety: A randomized clinical trial

Postoperative pain and anxiety are unpleasant situations that are often experienced by women undergoing cesarean section. Since the routine methods of pain relief after surgery is still inadequate, the need for complementary treatments is felt. Foot Reflexology (FR) and Auricular Acupressure (AA) are two of the most popular and safe procedures of complementary and alternative medicine therapies. So, this study aimed to determine and compare the effectiveness of reflexology and AA on postoperative pain and anxiety.

This three-group randomized clinical trial study was performed on 101 pregnant women, admitted to Mashhad Omolbanin hospital, for a cesarean section, in 2015. In the intervention groups, 2-3 h after the operation, AA or FR was performed for 20 min. Routine care was provided for the control group. Pain and anxiety were evaluated by VAS and Spielberger anxiety questionnaire before and 1 and 2 h after the intervention.

The results showed that immediately after the intervention, pain intensity was significantly lower in both AA and FR groups (P < 0.001) compared with the control group. In addition, 2 h after the interventions, pain intensity was significantly lower in the AA group compared with the control group (P = 0.006). However, no significant differences were observed between the FR and the control groups (P = 0.095). In addition, 1 and 2 h after the intervention, anxiety was significantly different between the three groups (P = 0.033 and P = 0.018), respectively. The results of the Tukey test showed that this difference was only between FR and control groups (P = 0.025 and P = 0.017), respectively.

AA is more effective in reducing post-cesarean pain while FR effectively reduces post-cesarean anxiety. Therefore, these complementary medicine treatments as easy and noninvasive methods are recommended to be used during labor for improving maternal outcomes.