Acupressure as an Adjunct to Pharmacological Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

Table 2 Comparison of mean scores of pain and DASS-21 for the intervention and control group at different time periods.

Characteristics	T₀	T₁	T₂	T₃	T₄	p^†
VAS pain
Intervention group	8.97 ± 5.27	6.96 ± 3.46	5.86 ± 3.87	5.12 ± 2.65	4.18 ± 2.11	<0.001
Control group	8.12 ± 4.67	7.89 ± 3.24	7.67 ± 4.31	7.43 ± 4.11	7.31 ± 2.45	0.10
p^*	0.21	0.04	0.001	<0.001	<0.001	-
Depression
Intervention group	14.56 ± 8.63	14.28 ± 8.67	13.45 ± 7.89	12.32 ± 4.56	10.98 ± 4.34	0.001
Control group	16.54 ± 9.87	16.42 ± 8.90	15.61 ± 6.84	15.28 ± 5.78	14.56 ± 4.23	0.14
p^*	0.12	0.07	0.03	0.0001	<0.0001	-
Anxiety
Intervention group	9.78 ± 5.18	9.34 ± 5.12	6.98 ± 4.87	6.12 ± 7.98	5.87 ± 4.20	<0.0001
Control group	8.76 ± 5.29	8.12 ± 5.58	8.35 ± 4.18	7.67 ± 4.34	7.55 ± 4.89	0.25
p^*	0.15	0.09	0.02	0.01	0.01
Stress
Intervention group	16.51 ± 9.85	15.23 ± 9.78	14.34 ± 9.87	12.86 ± 8.67	11.51 ± 8.13	0.001
Control group	17.65 ± 8.25	17.16 ± 7.81	16.43 ± 7.64	15.97 ± 6.78	15.87 ± 7.45	0.36
p^*	0.36	0.11	0.08	0.004	0.0009	-
DASS-21, total
Intervention group	40.85 ± 22.32	38.85 ± 22.34	34.77 ± 21.47	31.30 ± 20.85	28.36 ± 18.76	<0.0001
Control group	42.95 ± 22.47	41.70 ± 24.65	40.39 ± 25.31	38.92 ± 24.78	37.98 ± 17.25	0.08
p^*	0.49	0.37	0.08	0.01	0.0001	-

DASS-21 = Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21; T₀ = data at baseline; T₁ = follow-up after 2 months; T₂ = follow-up after 4 months; T₃ = follow-up after 6 months; T₄ = follow-up after 8 months; VAS = visual analog scale.
^* Mean scores of both groups compared by using the Student t-test at each time point.
^† Repeated measure analysis of variance was performed.

ISSN: 3059-4049