Study of alternative and complementary therapy in nursing

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Purpose :It is to clarify the change of anxiety before and after the use of relaxation capsule that stimulates five senses such as hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, heating and to identify the relationship between personal characteristics and the change of anxiety state.Methods :After the approval of the human subject committee of IRB, the study was conducted August 4-8, 2003. The instruments were STAI X-1 (state) and X-2 (trait) for anxiety and Y-G test for personal characteristics. The subjects were asked to answer the questionnaires of the STAI X-1&2 and Y-G test before entering to the capsule, and then to answer STAI X-1 after the intervention which took 25 minutes to complete.Results :The subjects were 19 cancer patients (8 males, 11 females). The average age was 53 (SD=16.4) years old. There was a significant difference in state anxiety between pre-and post-interventions of relaxation capsule (p<.01). And for the persons with the personal characteristics of positive attitude, there was a significant difference in state anxiety between pre-and post-intervention of relaxation capsule (p<.05).discussion and conclusion :As a whole, it is noted that reducing state anxiety was shown after the use of the capsule. The use of the relaxation capsule was effective for the persons with positive attitude. It is postulated that the relaxation for persons with high state anxiety can be attained by stimulating the five human senses. Also, for the persons with positive attitude, the relaxation can be more effective by doing so. The study limitations were sample size which was 19 subjects and convenient. Further study can be expected to get better results.