Acupressure Benefits Smoking Cessation

Many massage therapists use acupressure in massage sessions. A new quasi-experimental study shows acupressure combined with multimedia instruction or alone aids quitting smoking in young adults.

Participants were assigned to experimental groups according to their preference. Group 1 received the 10-week program with auricular acupressure plus multimedia instruction; Group 2 received auricular acupressure alone, according to a press release published on www.pubmed.gov.

Thirty-two participants were in each group were recruited from universities in Taiwan. The physical and psychological data were collected right before and after the program.

The study demonstrated the effects of smoking cessation on physical and psychological factors in each group, the press release noted. Statistical between-group differences existed in psychological factors of smoking cessation self-efficacy and nicotine dependence, but not in physical factors of carbon monoxide and cotinine.

“This study adds to the body of research on the benefits of using auricular acupressure combined with or without multimedia instruction for smoking cessation in adolescents,” the authors noted. “The combined intervention was more effective especially in increasing smoking cessation self-efficacy and decreasing nicotine dependence.”

The research is published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies.