Acu-TENS for relief of dyspnoea in palliative care patients: Version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does Acupuncture Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (Acu-TENS) provide effective symptom control of dyspnoea in patients with a life-limiting condition?: A Phase 2 cross-over, single-blind feasibility study
IRAS ID
116294
Contact name
Fiona Ring
Contact email
Research summary
Breathlessness is a common symptom in patients approaching the end of their life with both cancer and non cancer diagnoses. Effective treatments for breathlessness are limited. TENS is a safe, non drug intervention with few side effects. Therefore it's use in very ill patients to alleviate a distressing symptom like breathlessness would be valuable. There have been a number of studies which have shown that acupuncture transcutaneous electrical stimulation,(Acu-TENS)whereby the TENS is positioned over a recognised acupuncture point, relieves breathlessness in patients with COPD. It is not known whether Acu-TENS is effective in palliative conditions in a broader sense.
We propose a study to evaluate the feasiblity of conducting a non-blinded crossover trial to investigate use of Acu-TENS for relief of breathlessness in palliative care patients. The population would be palliative care inpatients at St Christopher's Hospice who are breathless at rest and where there are no medications or treatments available or appropriate to treat the underlying cause of their breathlessness.
The study will take place over 6 months. During this time each of the recruited patients will receive 2 45 minute sessions of TENS on consecutive days. In one session the TENS will be positioned over an acu-point recognised for relief of breathlessness, so called Acu-TENS. In the other session TENS will be placed on the back in a fixed position that is not a recognised acu-point. Patients will be randomised to receive either TENS or Acu-TENS first.
The patients will be asked to score their breathlessness from 0-10 before and after each Acu-TENS or TENS session. Finally they will be asked to complete a short questionnaire asking them how they found the study and use of TENS. Patients will each spend a total of 3-4 hours participating in the study.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SW/1046
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion