Aurecular Acupressure Therapy in Reducing Pain Levels: Literature Review

Abstract

Background Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience due to actual or potential tissue damage. Pain management can be done either pharmacologically or non-pharmacologically. However, pharmacologic pain management is known to have side effects such as gastric mucosal irritation, constipation, nausea, vomiting, addiction and others. Therefore, it is important to carry out non-pharmacological therapy as a complementary and alternative therapy for pain management. Aurecular acupressure is a non-pharmacological technique that has been proven based on research to reduce the level of pain in various pain complaints. Aim The aim of writing this article is to investigate the effect of aurecular acupressure as an alternative complementary therapy on reducing pain levels in various clinical conditions. Method The method used is a literature review from pubmed, scientdirect and google scholar. Articles in English and article publishing restrictions from 2009-2019. Result There is a decrease in pain levels and decreased analgesic consumption in subjects receiving aurecular acupressure therapy in various pain complaints such as low back pain, dysmenorrhea pain, Post TKR pain and Breast cancer pain.