New research shows that acupressure reduces children’s anxiety before surgery.
Fifty-two children were randomized to receive acupressure bead intervention either at the Extra-1 acupuncture point or at a sham point. A Bispectral Index (BIS) monitor was applied to all children before the onset of the intervention. Anxiety was assessed at baseline and before entrance to the operating room.
“We found that after the intervention, children in the Extra-1 group experienced reduced anxiety whereas children in the sham group experienced increased anxiety,” the researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia.
The research was conducted by the Departments of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; the Departments of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Orange, California.
Earlier research showed acupressure increased alertness, decreased stress, and relived pain.