Metrics details. In palliative care, the relief of discomfort is sought by an overall approach, combining prescribed medication and additional therapies, such as foot reflexology FR. The main objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of FR in a population of inpatients in a palliative care unit PCU.
The precariousness of the patients led us to perform a feasibility study and not a cohort study from the outset. Its secondary objective was to assess the impact of an FR session on some symptoms of discomfort anxiety, pain, troubled sleep, and psychological distress.
This is a feasibility study designed as a randomized controlled two-arm therapeutic trial. One arm tested FR, the other an active control, massage therapy MT. The evaluators were blinded. These patients were in the palliative care phase of cancer, motor neuron disease, or terminal organ failure. Concerning the symptoms of discomfort, ESAS sleep quality score was on average 3. It resulted in a slight improvement in sleep quality.
For other discomfort symptoms such as anxiety, pain and distress, FR yielded a non-significant improvement. Significant results would have needed a larger cohort. Peer Review reports. Palliative care seeks to improve quality of life by relieving discomfort through pharmacological or other treatments.
Among the symptoms of discomfort frequently encountered in a palliative care unit PCU are anxiety, pain, sleep disorders, and psychological distress. Sleep disturbance and pain affect half of palliative cancer patients [ 3 , 4 ].
