ClinicalTrials.Veeva

Menu

Comparison of the Therapeutic Effect of Acupressure Therapy and Iberogast ® (STW-5) in Children With Functional Nausea

University Hospital Basel logo

University Hospital Basel

Status

Completed

Conditions

Functional Nausea

Treatments

Other: Placebo-drops
Other: Placebo-band
Drug: Iberogast
Other: Acupressure

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02660970
EKNZ 2015-322

Details and patient eligibility

About

Functional gastrointestinal disorders are common disorders that are characterized by persistent and recurring GI symptoms. These occur as a result of abnormal functioning of the GI tract and are not caused by structural or biochemical abnormalities. As a result, medical tests- such as blood tests and endoscopic exams- have essentially normal/negative (non-disease) results. More than 20 functional GI disorders have been identified. They can affect any part of the GI tract. One of the most common functional disorders is nausea and dyspepsia (pain or discomfort in the upper abdominal area, feeling of fullness, bloating). Any chronic illness, including functional nausea, will affect a person's health-related quality of life (general well-being, ability to carry out everyday activities), additional psychosocial disturbances and amplify the experienced illness.

The majority of children suffering from functional nausea in Europe are treated with Iberogast®. a herbal mixture, whose effect was demonstrated in several studies. Since Iberogast® is not available in the United States of America, children there receive an acupressure therapy. The American gastroenterologists refer hereby to several studies, which have shown, that the positive effect of such therapies in patients with chemotherapy-induced nausea is even greater than a therapy with ondansetron. Since acupressure is able to reduce somatic nausea, it is also believed to decrease functional nausea, but it has never been investigated. Therefore, there are no data. That's why Investigators want to compare the efficacy of these two therapies, that is, Iberogast® and acupressure

Full description

Functional gastrointestinal disorders are common disorders that are characterized by persistent and recurring GI symptoms. These occur as a result of abnormal functioning of the GI tract and are not caused by structural or biochemical abnormalities. As a result, medical tests- such as blood tests and endoscopic exams- have essentially normal/negative (non-disease) results. More than 20 functional GI disorders have been identified. They can affect any part of the GI tract. One of the most common functional disorders is nausea and dyspepsia (pain or discomfort in the upper abdominal area, feeling of fullness, bloating). Any chronic illness, including functional nausea, will affect a person's health-related quality of life (general well-being, ability to carry out everyday activities), additional psychosocial disturbances and amplify the experienced illness.

However, the majority of children suffering from functional Nausea in Europe get treated with Iberogast®: A herbal mixture, whose effect was demonstrated in several studies [10, 11]. Since Iberogast® is not available in the United States of America, children receive there an acupressure therapy. The American gastroenterologists refer hereby to several studies, which have shown, that the effect of such therapies in patient with chemotherapy-induced nausea is even greater than the taking of ondansetron [12,13 ]. Since acupressure is capable to reduce somatic nausea, it is also believed to decrease functional nausea, but it has never been investigated, therefore no data are available. That's why Investigators plan to compare the efficiency of these two therapies.

Furthermore Investigators want to measure the cognitive performance before and after the intervention to proof a possible effect on the 'gut-brain-axis'. For this purpose the participants have to do the 'Flanker Task', a standardised test on the computer.

Enrollment

56 patients

Sex

All

Ages

6 to 18 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Functional nausea (normal endoscopy findings)

Exclusion criteria

  • Gastrointestinal infection less than 2 weeks ago
  • Known chronic gastrointestinal disease
  • Use of drugs 2 weeks prior to starting the study

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

Triple Blind

56 participants in 4 patient groups, including a placebo group

Acupressure
Active Comparator group
Description:
Children will have to wear a 'seasickness-band', which has the effect of acupressure
Treatment:
Other: Acupressure
Placebo-band
Placebo Comparator group
Description:
Children will have to wear a 'placebo-wristband'
Treatment:
Other: Placebo-band
Iberogast
Active Comparator group
Description:
Children will have to take Iberogast drops
Treatment:
Drug: Iberogast
Placebo-drops
Placebo Comparator group
Description:
Children will have to take placebo-drops
Treatment:
Other: Placebo-drops

Trial contacts and locations

1

Loading...

Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

Clinical trials

Find clinical trialsTrials by location
© Copyright 2026 Veeva Systems