Background: Nausea is a common complaint of patients with chronic kidney disease due to an accumulation of urea. Hemodialysis therapy has some side effects that play a role in increasing nausea. The use of pharmacological treatment to deal with nausea may bring a risk of aggravating the work of the kidneys, and thus its administration should be limited. Benson relaxation is a complementary therapy which reduces nausea by increasing the relaxation response that affects the nausea center in the brain.
Objectives: This study aims to determine the effects of Benson relaxation technique on decreasing nausea.
Methods: This study used a pre-posttest quasiexperimental research design with a control group. The samples were 30 patients recruited using consecutive sampling and were divided into the intervention group (n=15)andthecontrolgroup(n=15).Nauseawasmeasuredusinganumericratingscale. Theresultsshowedthattherewasadecreaseinthemeanofnauseaintheintervention group from 7.13 to 2.26, with p-value = 0.001. The mean value slightly decreased in the control group from 7.20 to 6.40, with p-value = 0.001.
Conclusions: Benson relaxation affected the decrease of nausea in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that nurses apply Benson relaxation technique as a non-pharmacological therapy to decrease nausea in hemodialysis patients.