Complementary Therapy for the Management of Coat Hypertension Syndrome

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    A randomised control trial, evaluating the effect of a personalised complementary therapy intervention for the management of white coat hypertension syndrome within early phase oncology clinical trial patients

  • IRAS ID

    327774

  • Contact name

    Ben Hood

  • Contact email

    ben.hood@nhs.net

  • Sponsor organisation

    THE NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 0 months, 5 days

  • Research summary

    This research will examine the impact of a personalised complementary therapy intervention for the management of 'White Coat Hypertension' within early phase oncology clinical trial patients.
    Cancer patients that take part in early phase clinical trials have advanced cancer; a type of cancer that is terminal. In many cases these set of patients have exhausted all NHS treatment options available to them and are sometimes offered the opportunity to take part in an early phase clinical trial; to get access to an experimental cancer treatment.
    Research shows that advanced cancer patients have a lot of anxiety, as a consequence of disease burden. Research also shows that advanced cancer patients anxiety levels increase when attending hospital appointments, in particular clinical trial appointments. Further research has also shown that increased anxiety levels make patients’ blood pressure rise, when they are attending these type of appointments. This is often called white coat hypertension; which, if untreated increases patients risk of heart attack and stroke.
    Personalised complementary therapy is used within the NHS to support cancer patients; making them feel more relaxed and reduce their anxiety levels. Within our clinical team we have witnessed at first hand the impact complementary therapy has, and believe it does have a positive impact on anxiety and white coat hypertension.
    To date there has been no clinical research to examine if complementary therapy is an effective treatment for anxiety and white coat hypertension.
    The primary objectives of this research are:
    • To investigate if personalised complementary therapy is an effective intervention in the management of anxiety and white coat hypertension

    • To investigate if personalised complementary therapy is more effective than current gold standard practices for the management of white coat hypertension

    • To investigate what the rates of white coat hypertension are amongst early phase cancer clinical trial patients

  • REC name

    London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    23/LO/0701

  • Date of REC Opinion

    10 Aug 2023

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion