Therapeutic Touch on Pain, Delirium, Sleep, and Physiological Parameters

February 9, 2026 updated by: Sibel Oksuz

Evaluation of the Effects of Therapeutic Touch on Pain, Delirium, Sleep, and Physiological Parameters in Intensive Care Patients

The study was conducted to determine the effects of therapeutic touch applied to intensive care patients on pain, delirium, sleep and physiological parameters.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study aims to evaluate the effects of therapeutic touch on pain, delirium, sleep, and physiological parameters in surgical intensive care patients. Patients will be assessed at 24, 48, and 72 hours. The intervention and control groups will be randomized. The intervention group will receive routine care and therapeutic touch, while the control group will receive only routine care. Parameters will be assessed before and after each measurement.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

80

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who volunteer to participate in the study,
  • Patients aged 18 and over who receive post-surgical treatment at the Surgical Intensive Care Unit of Aksaray Education and Research Hospital,
  • Patients who do not have communication problems (hearing, speaking, understanding, etc.),
  • Patients who have received treatment in the surgical intensive care unit for at least 72 hours,
  • Patients with RASS: between -3 and +4 and Glasgow coma scale: 10 and above,
  • Patients who use only non-steroidal drugs as analgesics,
  • Patients whose medical diagnosis is not dementia,
  • Patients who do not have a mental state disorder/psychological disease and do not use sleeping pills.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who developed complications in the ICU after surgery,
  • Patients who received treatment in the surgical intensive care unit for less than 72 hours.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Randomized control
Experimental (therapeutic touch)
Other: therapeutic touch
therapeutic touch
Other Names:
  • routine maintenance
No Intervention: Control
Control (routine care)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
VAS (Visual Analog Scale)
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Pain intensity measured using a 0-10 Visual Analog Scale (0 = no pain, 10 = worst pain).
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
RASS (Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale)
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Sedation/agitation level scored from +4 (combative) to -5 (unarousable).
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
RCSQ (Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire)
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Sleep quality assessed with RCSQ, range 0-100.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Blood pressure
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured using standard bedside monitoring in the intensive care unit.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Heart rate
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Heart rate measured using continuous bedside cardiac monitoring in the intensive care unit.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Respiratory rate
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Respiratory rate measured and recorded as breaths per minute using bedside monitoring.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Body temperature
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Body temperature measured using a standard clinical thermometer in the intensive care unit.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Oxygen saturation
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).
Peripheral oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (pre-intervention).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
VAS (Visual Analog Scale)
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Pain intensity measured using a 0-10 Visual Analog Scale.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
RASS (Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale)
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Sedation/agitation scored from +4 to -5.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
RCSQ (Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire)
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Sleep quality assessed with RCSQ, range 0-100.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Blood pressure
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured using standard bedside monitoring in the intensive care unit.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Heart rate
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Heart rate measured using continuous bedside cardiac monitoring in the intensive care unit.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Respiratory rate
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Respiratory rate measured and recorded as breaths per minute using bedside monitoring.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Body temperature
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Body temperature measured using a standard clinical thermometer in the intensive care unit.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Oxygen saturation
Time Frame: At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).
Peripheral oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry.
At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after ICU admission (post-intervention).

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sibel Oksuz

Collaborators

Aksaray University

Investigators

  • Study Director: Sibel Öksüz, Aksaray University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 10, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

February 28, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 18, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 9, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

February 12, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 12, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 9, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Aksaray Hospital

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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