مریم علی اشرف جودت

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

Pain is one of the most important complications after Electroconvulsive therapy. Failure to take this pain reduces the satisfaction of patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate patients' satisfaction with post- Electroconvulsivetherapy pain control by means of massage therapy in patients with depression. This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 56 patients with depression who referred to the Department of Electroconvulsive Therapy at Razi Psychiatric Center, Urmia, during the sampling period. Admission and random access criteria were categorized into control and intervention groups. The data collection tool was a demographic questionnaire, a visual scale of pain assessment, and patient satisfaction questionnaire. In the intervention group, the location and severity of pain were determined by using the dummy shapes and visual instrument for pain assessment by the patient, and Reflexology for 20 minutes at reflex points and the patient's satisfaction form was completed. The results were analyzed with SPSS-24 software using satisfactory The results showed a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of satisfaction of the studied units. In other words, a significant reduction in the severity of pain after ECT in patients with depression and patient satisfaction was significantly affected by pain control (P <0.001) According to the results of this study, it can be suggested that by incorporating a reflexive massage in the nursing plan to control the complications after medical treatment, it would increase patient satisfaction and their survival in the treatment program.