Effect of Muscle Relaxation on Hemodialysis Patients’ Pain

Aims: Dialysis patients have experienced some degree of pain, especially foot pain. Some complementary interventions such as muscle relaxation are effective in relieving pain. This study was performed with the aim of assessing the effect of muscle relaxation on hemodialysis patients’ pain. Materials & Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 90 hemodialysis patients of Khatamolanbia and Imam Ali hemodialysis centers of Zahedan during 2013 and 2014. The patients were chosen by purposive sampling based on inclusion criteria and randomly divided into control and experimental groups. Pain intensity was measured by McGill questionnaire before intervention. Then, Benson muscle relaxation was taught to patients’ of case group and was performed by them for 15-20 minutes twice a day for a month. The control group received no training. The pain intensity of two groups was compared after one month. The data were analyzed using Chisquare, independent T and Mann-Whitney tests by SPSS 21 software. Findings: Most of the patients were men, married, housekeeper with under diploma education and the mean age of them was 43.0±15.0 years. There was a significant decrease in pain intensity in the intervention group compared to the control (p=0.03). Conclusion: The muscle relaxation technique can be employed to reduce pain in hemodialysis patients.