Starlight Therapy in Palliative Care

Starlight Therapy™ has been shown to help alleviate end-of-life symptoms in Palliative Care patients and reduce the need for PRN or "as needed" medications. This study will investigate the efficacy of this intervention on the symptom of anxiety using a mixed-method analysis.

The primary investigator hypothesizes that any anti-anxiolytic effects could be caused by the Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cell neural pathway to the amygdala.

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Key information

Conditions

Symptom Management

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Victoria General Hospital

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

About this study

Starlight Therapy has been shown (see citation) to help alleviate end-of-life symptoms in Palliative Care patients and reduce the need for PRN or "as needed" medications. This study will investigate the efficacy of this intervention using a mixed-method analysis.

Starlight Therapy will be offered to patients with unpleasant end-of-life symptoms such as dyspnea, agitation, anxiety, restlessness and insomnia. The effect the Starlight Therapy has in helping alleviate these symptoms will be measured using the ESAS (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System) questionnaire at baseline and following a predetermined period of time of Starlight Therapy.

10 Starlight Projectors have been purchased for the unit where the study will take place: the Inpatient Palliative Care Unit 7A, Victoria General Hospital, Centennial Building. The funding was acquired by a Comfort & Care Grant from the QEII Foundation.

The results will be compiled and analyzed in a research paper "Concerning the Efficacy and Underlying Mechanism of Starlight Therapy as a Non-Pharmacological Nursing Intervention for Palliative Care Patients".

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

ESAS indicates at least one of the following symptoms:

Insomnia
Anxiety
Restlessness
Dyspnea
Pain

Exclusion criteria

Clinical Diagnosis of blindness
ESAS does not include any of the flowing symptoms:

Insomnia
Anxiety
Restlessness
Dyspnea
Pain

Treatment and study plan

Starlight Therapy

Other

Starlight Projector will be placed in patients' rooms and project starlight on the ceilings and walls in an effort to reduce unpleasant symptoms

Primary outcomes

Using Starlight Therapy to measure Change in Unpleasant Symptoms in Palliative Care Patients as measured using the ESAS (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System) Scale. On a scale of 0-10, with 0 = no symptom and 10= symptom is worst outcome possible.

Time frame: 2 hours of Starlight Therapy

Edmonton Assessment scale questionnaire will be completed before Starlight Therapy and after 2 hours.

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

shelley A sandblom, BA, BScN, RN

CONTACT

[email protected]

902-449-6110

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Nova Scotia Health Authority

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Starlight Therapy as a Non-Pharmacological Nursing Intervention in Palliative Care

Important dates

Study start: 2026
Primary completion: 2027
Study completion: 2027
First posted: Oct 23, 2018
Registry last updated: Aug 23, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.

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