EFFECTIVENESS OF AURICULAR THERAPY ON LABOR PAIN: A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL

The effectiveness of auricular acupressure on pain management during labor: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

AIM

This meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of auricular acupressure on pain management during labor.

METHODS

Six English and three Chinese electronic databases were comprehensively searched from inception to 6 November 2021. The PRISMA checklist was followed. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed with the Cochrane Collaboration Bias Risk Assessment Tool. The meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3 software. Heterogeneity between studies was calculated using I² .

RESULTS

Five studies comprising 312 participants were included. The labor pain scores of the auricular acupressure group were significantly lower than those of the usual care group at cervix dilations of 6, 8, and 10 cm, with mean differences (95% confidence intervals) of -1.05 (-1.41, -0.69), -1.44 (-2.07, -0.82), and -1.96 (-3.30, -0.61), respectively. Auricular acupressure can thus effectively improve the labor pain perception at cervix dilations of 6, 8, and 10 cm. Moreover, auricular acupressure shortened the active phase, and had the trend of shortening the second and third stages of labor. There was no evidence that auricular acupressure had an effect on the rate of cesarean section or the 1 and 5 min Apgar scores.

CONCLUSION

Effective labor pain relief, better labor pain perception, and the lack of adverse effects support the use of auricular acupressure. More high-quality and rigorous trials are needed to verify our findings before we can make strong recommendations.

PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SEVERITY OF CHRONIC BACK PAIN IN ADULTS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

ABSTRACT Objective: determining the multidimensional factors associated with the severity of chronic back pain is essential to design appropriate interventions. The objective of this study was to assess the physical and emotional factors associated with the severity of chronic back pain in adults. Method: a descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study, carried out between November 2017 and December 2018 in Family Health Strategies, with 198 adults with chronic back pain. Pain severity, assessed by the Brief Pain Inventory, was considered the outcome variable; and the pain interference in daily activities (Brief Pain Inventory), physical disability (Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire), quality of life (World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief) and pain threshold (digital algometer) variables were considered explanatory. A Multivariate Multiple Linear Regression analysis, using the stepwise method with 5% significance, was preformed to establish an explanatory model of pain severity. Results: the mean age was 48.03 years old (standard deviation: 12.41). Most of the participants were women, married and worked. The variables that had a significant and joint impact on pain severity were pain interference in daily activities (parameter: 0.196; p-value<0.001) and in mood (parameter: 0.054; p-value=0.039) and physical domain of quality of life (parameter: -0.032; p-value<0.001). Conclusion: physical factors (pain interference in daily activities and physical domain of quality of life) and emotional factors (pain interference in mood) play an important role in the severity of chronic back pain, which reinforces its multidimensional character.

Effects of floral therapy on labor and birth: a randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVES

to assess the effects of floral therapy in the face of factors that boost pain in the parturition process and its results in the duration of labor.

METHODS

this is a randomized, controlled and triple-blind clinical trial. We selected 164 pregnant women with gestational age ≥37 weeks, cervical dilation ≥4 cm, randomly divided into floral therapy and placebo group.

RESULTS

the Five Flower floral essence proved to be effective, considering the factors that boost pain in labor. Experimental Group did not show an increase in contractions, unlike Control Group, which presented an increase of one contraction for mothers in active phase and amniorrhexis. The Five Flower essence proved to be effective in reducing labor time by 1:30h from the beginning of the intervention at birth.

CONCLUSIONS

floral therapy proved to be effective in pain management, reflecting positively in its brevity, qualifying its outcome.