穴位按壓應用於神經科便秘病患之成效初探

Constipation is a common problem among neurological patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of acupressure at he gu (LI4), tianshu (ST25), and zhongwan (CV12) on constipation in neurological patients. The study used a quasi-experimental design. Data collection took place between June, 2004 and June, 2005. And recruited 64 subjects in the northern area of Taiwan, who were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Medicines (softener and laxatives) and acupressure were dispensed to the experimental group, while medicines alone were dispensed to the control group. Subjects were investigated by means of a questionnaire about bowel movements. SPSS 11.5 for Windows was used for data processing. Descriptive statistics, student's t-test and Chi-square analysis were used to analyze the data. It was found that there were no statistically significant differences in age, diagnosis and medicine consumption. Those patients who received acupressure, however, experienced easier bowel movement than the control group (p＜.05) within six to 12 days. On the basis of these findings, health providers may choose to use acupressure with medicines to relieve constipation in neurological patients.