Samenvatting

Coping with chronic or terminal diseases is a factor of permanent psychological stress, leading to negative subsequent stress symptoms; reflexology is a complementary medicine, based on the principle that specific areas of the feet, hands, andears are related to corresponding parts of the body and intends to give a general sense of relaxation to restore homeostasis.
This study aims to answer the question: what is the state of the art evidence that using reflexology as a complementary therapy can benefit the management of psychological stress symptoms of patients going through chronic or palliative care?
13 articles were selected for the systematic literature review the majority of which found positive effects
of reflexology on stress symptoms, seeming to point to some clinical relevance to the implementation of reflexology in chronic care.
However, more research with similar protocols are needed to evaluate the physiological and psychologicall impact of reflexology on stress.