The effect of simultaneous pressure of Shenmen ear and Neiguan points on anxiety and physiological indicators of patients with exacerbated COPD referred to the Emergency department

Determining the effect of simultaneous pressure of Shenmen ear and Neiguan points on anxiety and physiological indicators of patients with exacerbated COPD referred to the Emergency department

A double-blind clinical trial with a sham group. Allocation of samples in groups is done randomly and using permutation blocks on 90 patients.

The study will be conducted in the emergency department of Bohlol Gonabad and Imam Hasan Bojnurd hospitals. First, all patient's physiological and anxiety indicators will be measured and recorded. Then the intervention will be carried out, and 20 minutes later, the physiological and anxiety indicators will be measured again. This study is double-blind in that the samples and the person evaluating the variables will not know how the samples are allocated to the intervention and sham groups.

Patients with exacerbated COPD referred to the emergency department of Bahlul Gonabad and Imam Hassan Bejnoord Hospitals who were included in the study according to the inclusion criteria.

For intervention, gentle and simultaneous pressure will be applied on the Shenmen point of the ear and the Nigwan point of the non-dominant hand in a rotating manner with an average of 20-25 cycles per minute and counter-clockwise for 10 minutes and only once; In the sham group, acupressure will be applied to false points.

Anxiety; Physiological indicators

Randomization method and description of each method: simple randomization, permutation blocks Sampling will be done in an available manner and based on the entry criteria. Then they will be randomly assigned to sham and intervention groups using four permutation blocks (AABB, ABAB, ABBA, BABA, BAAB, BBAA) by throwing a dice. In this way, we give codes 1 to 6 to each quadruple permutation block to match the numbers in the dice. We give AABB code 1, ABAB block code 2, ABBA block code 3, BABA block code 4, BBAA block code 5, and BAAB block code 6. Then, because the required sample size for this research is 90 people, we have to throw the dice 23 times (4*12=48) so that at least 90 samples are included in the study, and after matching the number of the dice with the code belonging to the replacement blocks, We line up the order of samples one after the other. In this method, the letters A mean the samples placed in the intervention group, and the letters B mean the samples placed in the sham group.

This study is double-blind in that the samples and the researcher who evaluates the level of anxiety and physiological indicators will not know about the allocation of the samples in the intervention and sham groups.