(HealthDay News) — Acupressure may be better than acupuncture for reducing sleep disturbance in cancer patients, according to research published in Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing.
Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the comparative effectiveness of acupuncture and acupressure on sleep in cancer patients.
The analysis included 24 randomized controlled trials and 2002 cancer patients. The trials covered 6 interventions — manual acupuncture, electroacupuncture, acupressure, sham, enhanced usual care, and no treatment.
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The researchers found that, compared with enhanced supportive care, acupressure demonstrated the largest effect size for reducing self-reported sleep disturbance (standardized mean difference [SMD], −2.67), followed by acupuncture (SMD, −1.87) and electroacupuncture (SMD, −1.60).
“Based on available evidence, acupressure may be a more promising approach than acupuncture for reducing sleep disturbance in patients with cancer,” corresponding author Denise Shuk Ting Cheung, PhD, RN, of the University of Hong Kong, said in a statement. “Future studies should focus on the differential mechanisms of action of acupressure and acupuncture and link them to the multifactorial causes of sleep disturbance in patients with cancer.”
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