Effects of Reflexology on Physiological Indices after Electroconvulsive Therapy in Depressed Patients Referred to Educational-Treatment Razi Psychiatric Center of Urmia, Iran

The effects of general anesthesia and seizure caused by electroconvulsive therapy increase the risk of cardiovascular changes. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of reflexology on physiological indices after electroconvulsive therapy.

This clinical trial was performed on 56 patients with depression, who were selected by stratified random sampling after an electroconvulsive therapy and randomly allocated to the intervention and control groups. Data were collected using a demographic characteristics questionnaire and a vital sign record form and its tools. In the intervention group, vital signs were recorded after electroconvulsive therapy and patients’ vigilance, followed by performing a 20-minute reflexology session at reflex points. The vital signs were measured 10 minutes after the intervention and compared to vital signs immediately after vigilance and with the control group one hour later. In addition, data analysis was performed in SPSS version 24 using the Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon test.

In this study, the mean and standard deviation of blood pressure in the control and intervention groups were estimated at 111.60 ±11.47 and 114.92±10.54, respectively. Moreover, the results of Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon test were indicative of a significant intra and intergroup difference between the control and intervention groups in terms of the mean and standard deviation of patients’ blood pressure. After the intervention, the mean and standard deviation of pulse in the control and intervention groups were reported to be 83.35±4.83 and 78.64±5.07, respectively. According to the results, there was an intra and intergroup difference between the control and intervention groups in terms of the mean and standard deviation of patients’ blood pressure.

According to the results of the study, reflexology affected the rapid improvement of physiological indices after ECT in depressed patients and caused relaxation and balance of physiological indices in these patients. Therefore, nurses can use this method as a branch of complementary medicine to be effective in balancing the physiological indices of patients.
Keywords: Depression, Electrotherapy, Physiological Indices, Reflexology