PURPOSE
Purposes of this study were to understand the current trends on complementary therapy in relieving chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and to suggest the future research direction.
METHOD
Subjects were selected on CINAHL, MEDLINE, Korean Academy Data Base from 1980 to 2001 which used nausea, vomiting, chemotherapy and complementary therapy as key words in experimental studies. Eight korean articles and twenty-one international articles were analyzed in terms of general characteristics, research methods, and types of complementary therapy. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistical methods.
RESULT
Since 2000, researchers have more actively used complementary therapy. In subject characteristics, mean age was 35.5 years old, 45% of the researchers were performed with high level of incidence of chemotherapy induced vomiting, 14% of them set limit of consecutive cycle during research, and 65% of them did not comment the selecting criteria of sample. About 60% of them were designed post-test only control group; 35% used INV by Rhodes, 31% used Likert scale, and 24% used VAS for dependent variable. Muscle relaxation therapy was mostly applied for relief of nausea and vomiting.
CONCLUSION
Further studies will be needed to control extrinsic variables affecting nausea and vomiting in research design and to accumulate evidence with studies applying various complementary therapies.

Nausea, vomiting and retching are universal symptoms that affect individuals' state of health and self-care activities of individuals. Accurate measurements of individual symptoms are required to gather more definitive data, and enhance understanding, planning, and implementation of self-care actions. Recently the Rhodes Index of Nausea, Vomiting, and Retching(INVR), a new format of the INV-2(the Rhodes Index of Nausea and Vomiting), was developed to measure the symptoms of nausea, vomiting and retching in an English speaking population. To determine the reliability and validity of the INVR, and the possibility of using the instrument in Korea, the Korean translation of the INVR and the INV-2 were administered to a convenient sample of 105 patients at two University Hospitals in Kwangju, Korea. The Cronbach's alpha to estimate the internal consistency of reliability for INVR was 0.844. Equivalent measures of reliability were conducted to determine the percentage of agreement and the Spearman rank correlation coefficients for responses on the two instruments. The percent agreement was 83% and the correlation coefficient was 0.906 over all. A significant differences between the INVR scores of the patients with and without nausea, vomiting, or retching were seen, which indicated a construct validity. The INVR was found to be more user friendly for the patient and the healthcare providers. As a result, it is suggested that the INVR can provide a scientific base for measuring the symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and retching for nurses to improve patients' care and quality of life.