Acupressure treatment of morning sickness in pregnancy - A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

Objective - To fmd out whether acupressure wristband can alleviate nausea a nd vomiting in early pregnancy. Design - Double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Subjects - 97 women with mean gestational length completed 8-12 weeks. Main outcome measures - Symptoms were recorded according to intensity, dura tion and nature of complaints. Results - 71% of women in the intervention group reported both less intensi ve morning sickness and reduced duration of symptoms. The same tendency was seen in the placebo group with 59% reporting less intensity and 63% shorte r duration of symptoms. However, a significance level of 5% was reached onl y in the case of duration of symptoms, which was reduced by 2.74 hours in t he intervention group compared to 0.85 hours in the placebo group (p = 0.01 8). Conclusions - Acupressure wristband might be an alternative therapy far mor ning sickness in early pregnancy, especially before pharmaceutical treatmen t is considered.