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Recent publications have questioned the efficacy of massage. It is acknowledged that critical care environment are stressful for patients in term of invasive medical, and nursing procedures. Continuous brighting and excessive noise prohibits the potential relaxation and sleep. In this article, which is a research study, the physiologic response during and following a five minutes administration of back massage are described. This study is a semi-experimental research in which a 5 minutes back massage was offered to 25 patients as stress reduction intervention. Physiological data (Heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure, respiration and peripheral oxygen saturation) were obtained from the patient bedside monitoring system. Results indicated there was significant effect from the intervention on peripheral oxygen saturation (P<0.002). However, a significant decrease in heart rate (P<0.001), blood pressure (P<0.001) and respiration rate (P<0.001) was observed during the back massage intervention. Results indicated back massage had the potential effect of increasing relaxation as evidenced by physiological change during the intervention administration to critically ill patient in intensive care unit massage was found to be a useful therapy to enhance relaxation and sleep in critically ill patient.

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Background and Objective: Fetal heart pattern is one of the most important criteria in non stress test. This study was done to compare the effect of two anxiety- reducing methods, maternal relaxation and fetal-maternal attachment skills training on the prevalence of sporadic fetal heart decelerations and heart beat variability. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 126 pregnant women were randomly divided into three groups including teaching relaxation, maternal-fetal attachment skills and controls. Training was done for four weeks. NST was performed 30 minutes before of traning and after 4th week of training in the interventional groups. In the control group, NST was done in the 4th week. Cranley scale was filled at the end of the study. Results: The prevalence of sporadic deceleration in attachment skills, relaxation and control groups before intervention was 23.8%, 19% and 21.4%, respectively. After the intervention, the prevalence of sporadic deceleration in attachment skills group non-significantly changed to 11.9%. After the intervention the prevalence of sporadic deceleration in the relaxation group significantly changed to 4.8% (P<0.05). Conclusion: Maternal relaxation training decreased the prevalence of sporadic fetal heart decelerations, and enhances fetal heart beat variability.

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Background and Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease, leading to progressive disability, reduces daily activity and function and emerges with a wide range of physical symptoms. This study was done to determine the effect of relaxation on the physical symptoms in women with Multiple Sclerosis. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 50 patients with MS were randomly divided into relaxation and control groups. In the interventional group, Jacobson and Benson method was performed for 4 weeks, twice a week for 40 minutes and patients in the control group were received only care and routine medical treatment. Data was collected via fatigue severity scale (FSS), numerical rating scale (NRS) before, immediately after and two months after intervention. Results: The mean severity of fatigue score, before, immediately and two months after the intervention were not the same and time trends was effective on severity of fatigue score (P<0.05). The mean of fatigue score were significantly reduced in intervention group (immediately and two months after intervention) in compared to pre-intervention. The mean severity of pain score ,before, immediately and two months after the intervention were not the same and time trends was effective on mean severity of pain score (P<0.05). The mean intensity of pain score over time in the relaxation group non-significantly reduced in compared to the control group. Conclusion: Relaxation technique is effective as a low-cost, safe and easy method to reduce fatigue and pain in patients with MS.