Effect of ginger and P6 acupressure on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: a randomized controlled study.
Xiao Chenbing, Xia Huiling, Xing Qianqian and 5 others
PMID 38461442WHAT IT FOUND
Adding ginger capsules and P6 acupressure to standard antiemetics reduced delayed nausea, vomiting, and retching scores in cancer patients.
Ginger alone helped some symptoms, but the combination worked best. Benefit finding did not improve, and no extra side effects appeared.
Key findings
01The combined ginger and acupressure group had significantly lower scores for acute nausea and retching, and delayed nausea, vomiting, and retching, compared with the control group.
02Adding ginger and P6 acupressure did not change patients' benefit finding scores across any dimension.
03The incidence of dizziness, headache, fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea was not significantly different between the intervention groups and the control group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was conducted at a single hospital in Xuzhou, China, limiting generalisability to other regions and populations. Patients, nurses, and researchers could not be blinded due to the nature of the physical interventions, which may have influenced subjective symptom reporting. The intervention and observation covered only one chemotherapy cycle, so long-term efficacy and sustained benefit are unknown. The sample size was relatively small, and the authors noted that some outcome indicators did not show statistical significance due to this limitation. Twelve patients withdrew before analysis, including three in the ginger group who could not tolerate nausea and vomiting, which may bias results toward those who completed the study.
Declared interests
The paper does not report any conflicts of interest or funding sources.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the reduced nausea and vomiting scores as evidence that ginger or acupressure can replace pharmacological antiemetics. All groups, including the control, received standard antiemetic treatment per NCCN guidelines, so the study shows only that these adjuncts reduced symptoms further. The lack of blinding means patients knew which intervention they received, which can influence subjective symptom reporting.