Patient education integrated with acupuncture for relief of cancer-related fatigue randomized controlled feasibility study

Autor: Li Jie-Jia, Axe Eleanor K, Elashoff Robert M, Subramanian Saskia K, Hays Ron D, Johnston Michael F, Kim Irene, Vargas Roberto B, Lee Jihey, Yang LuGe, Hui Ka-Kit
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Vol 11, Iss 1, p 49 (2011)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1472-6882
DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-11-49
Popis: Abstract Background Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a prominent clinical problem. There are calls for multi-modal interventions. Methods We assessed the feasibility of delivering patient education integrated with acupuncture for relief of CRF in a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) with breast cancer survivors using usual care as control. Social cognitive and integrative medicine theories guided integration of patient education with acupuncture into a coherent treatment protocol. The intervention consisted of two parts. First, patients were taught to improve self-care by optimizing exercise routines, improving nutrition, implementing some additional evidence-based cognitive behavioral techniques such as stress management in four weekly 50-minute sessions. Second, patients received eight weekly 50-minute acupuncture sessions. The pre-specified primary outcome, CRF, was assessed with the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI). Secondary outcomes included three dimensions of cognitive impairment assessed with the FACT-COGv2. Results Due to difficulties in recruitment, we tried several methods that led to the development of a tailored recruitment strategy: we enlisted oncologists into the core research team and recruited patients completing treatment from oncology waiting rooms. Compared to usual care control, the intervention was associated with a 2.38-point decline in fatigue as measured by the BFI (90% Confidence Interval from 0.586 to 5.014; p Conclusions Patient education integrated with acupuncture had a very promising effect that warrants conducting a larger RCT to confirm findings. An effective recruitment strategy will be essential for the successful execution of a larger-scale trial. Trial registration NCT00646633
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