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Status unknownNCT05241782Updated Feb 16, 2022

The Effect of Auricular Acupressure on the Improvement of Anxiousness, Depression and Heart Rate Variability in Stroke Patients

An interventional study of auricular acupressure in Post-stroke Depression and Auricular Acupressure, sponsored by Cathay General Hospital. Status unknown at 1 site in Taiwan. Open to participants aged 20 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-02-16.

Sponsored by Cathay General Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Feb 2022), so the status shown — last known as Recruiting — may be out of date.

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 8 months after the study started (first participant enrolled May 2021, registered Jan 2022).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
70
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
20 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Heart rate variability (HRV) in post-stroke patients are closely related to patient mortality, neurological deterioration and overall prognosis. Anxiety and depression will demotivate the patients' will to undergo rehabilitation program, which would delay their functional recovery. The influence of acupressure over the auricle on the HRV, anxiousness and depressive mood have yet to be verified. The investigators aimed to study the effect on auricular acupressure treatment between the different trending of HRV, anxiety and depression and their correlations.

This is a randomized control study, consisted of 70 patients with post-stroke depressive mood, from both CGH and Xizhi Cathay hospital in Taiwan. HRV analysis is performed on the first 24 hours, and on a weekly basis for a total of 6 weeks. The included depressed patients were defined by the "Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale" and weekly will be undertaken by the patients. A "Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire" pre-test and after-test will be undertaken by the patients. Experimental group will receive acupressure treatment by the second week, trice daily, 3\~5minutes each session for a course of four weeks. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0, using generalized estimating equation, GEE.

The study hypothesized that the auricular acupressure treatment would improve post-stroke depression. Therefore, participants would be more willing to receive rehabilitation program. Our study would also help to provide future references on related studies.

02

Conditions studied

  • Post-stroke Depression
  • Auricular Acupressure

Keywords

  • stroke
  • heart rate variability
  • autonomic nerve
  • auricular acupressure
  • depression
  • anxiety
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In context

Stroke

7,286 studies on the registry are indexed under Stroke; 2,007 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 70 is above the median of 50 across 5,369 interventional studies indexed under Stroke.

Browse Stroke studies →

Lead sponsor

Cathay General Hospital is the lead sponsor of 22 studies on the registry; 2 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
20 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. over 20 years old
  2. Within 24 hours of arriving at the hospital with the first symptoms of stroke
  3. Hemorrhagic stroke:nontraumatic hemorrhagic stroke and Intracerebral Hemorrhage score 0-1
  4. Infarct stroke:National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale less than 30
  5. Able to express themselves through oral or written communication
  6. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Score equal to or greater than 11

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Previous diagnosis of arrhythmia
  2. Mental illness, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or possible complete paralysis on imaging
  3. Subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, epidural hemorrhage
  4. Patients with acute myocardial infarction
  5. There is a wound or lesion at the ear auricular point
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
70 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Experimental group

    Experimental group will receive acupressure treatment by the second week, trice daily, 3\~5minutes each session for a course of four weeks.

    Other: auricular acupressure

  • No intervention
    Control group

    Experimental group will receive routine care for a course of four weeks.

Interventions

  • Otherauricular acupressure

    Auricular therapy, as defined by Oleson, refers to "a healthcare modality by stimulating the external surface of the ear to alleviate pathological conditions in other parts of the body"Experimental group will receive acupressure treatment by the second week, trice daily, 3\~5minutes each session for a course of four weeks

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire

    The Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire(TDQ), which is a 4-point scale with 18 items, is a culturally specific depression self-rating instrument for effective screening of depression in Taiwan and has satisfactory reliability and validity. Subjects are guided to rate each item on a scale from 0 to 3 on the basis of "how often you felt the physical and emotional aspects during the past week". TDQ scores range from 0 to 54. The original test authors defined three ranges for both of the scales: 0-13 (non-cases), 14-18 (doubtful cases), and 19-54(cases). The higher the score, the more severe the depression.The Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire(TDQ) had a sensitivity of 0.89 and a specificity of 0.92 .

    Time frame: 4 Weeks

  2. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale

    The reliability of the HADS was good, with Cronbach's α coefficients of 0.86 (anxiety), 0.85 (depression), and 0.91 (total scale).The HADS consists of 14 items. Seven of the items indicate anxiety and the remaining seven items indicate depression. Each item had been answered by the patient on a four point (0-3) response category so the possible scores ranged from 0 to 21 for anxiety and 0 to 21 for depression. The original test authors defined three ranges for both of the scales: 0-7 (non-cases), 8-10 (doubtful cases), and 11-21(cases). It is possible to calculate a HADS total score by simply summing up the anxiety and depression items.

    Time frame: 4 Weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Heart rate variability (HRV)

    ANSWatch-Mini measures the following physiological parameters while sitting or lying in 6 minutes:Heart rate variability (HRV) HRV is further categorized into frequency bands, the most important of which are the low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) components. LF and LF/HF ratio were interpreted as indices for sympathetic activation This means HF could be a highly informative biomarker, as it can provide insight into the functional relevance of vagal activity during stress and its role in depression. we review relevant studies on HR, HF-HRV and consider their rele vance as markers for clinical groups in the depression-anxiety spectrum for integration to new patient stratification systems.

    Time frame: 4 weeks

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
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References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 16, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05241782
Lead sponsor
Cathay General Hospital
Collaborators
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences
Responsible party
Hsin-tung Chen (Principal Investigator, Cathay General Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 16, 2022
Start date
May 14, 2021
Primary completion
May 13, 2022 (estimated)
Completion
Aug 13, 2022 (estimated)
Last update
Feb 16, 2022

Study contacts

Chen Hsin-Tung
Contact
junyi0118.lai@gmail.com
886-83702367
Wang Mei-Hua
Contact
meihua@ntunhs.edu.tw
886-28227101 ext. 3166

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is status unknown, as verified in Feb 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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