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Department of Physiotherapy, Communication Sciences & Disorders and Occupational Therapy, Faculty
of Medicine, Sao Paulo University, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
Received 16 March 2016; received in revised form 15 July 2016; accepted 16 August 2016
KEYWORDS Summary Objective: To evaluate how Swedish massage affects the level of anxiety and vital
Anxiety; signs of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients.
Massage; Methods: Quasi-experimental study. Inclusion criteria: ICU patients, 18e50 years old, cooper-
Intensive Care Units ative, respiratory and hemodynamic stable, not under invasive mechanical ventilation. Exclu-
sion criteria: allergic to massage oil, vascular or orthopedic post-operative, skin lesions,
thrombosis, fractures. A 30-min Swedish massage was applied once. Variables: arterial pres-
sure, heart rate, respiratory rate, S-STAI questionnaire. Timing of evaluation: pre-massage,
immediately post-massage, 30 min post-massage. Comparison: T-test, corrected by Bonferroni
method, level of significance of 5%, confidence interval of 95%.
Results: 48 patients included, 30 (62.5%) female, mean age 55.46 (15.70) years old. Mean S-
STAI pre-massage: 42.51 (9.48); immediately post-massage: 29.34 (6.37); 30 min post-
massage: 32.62 (8.56), p < 0.001 for all comparison. Mean vital signs achieved statistical sig-
nificance between pre-massage and immediately post-massage.
Conclusion: Swedish massage reduced anxiety of ICU patients immediately and 30 min post-
massage. Vital signs were reduced immediately post-massage.
ª 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
* Corresponding author. Department of Physiotherapy, Communication Sciences & Disorders and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of
Medicine, Sao Paulo University, Rua Cipotânea 51, Cidade Universitária, Sao Paulo, CEP 05360-000, Brazil. Fax: þ55 11 26617969.
E-mail address: carolfu@usp.br (C. Fu).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2016.08.009
1360-8592/ª 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
566 T. Alves da Silva et al.
emotional changes such as stress and anxiety may affect and this effect remained after 30 min. Arterial pressure, HR
physiological parameters including vital signs. They and RR were reduced immediately after massage.
observed decrease in DAP, HR and RR, supporting the hy- Furthermore, there was no instability issue, since values
pothesis that massage is beneficial to patients in a coronary remained within normal limits.
unit since it promotes muscle relaxation, decreases
norepinephrine production, thus reducing anxiety levels.
We demonstrated that Swedish massage could be Conflict of interest
beneficial for clinical and post-operative ICU patients
because it reduced anxiety status. It also reduced arterial None.
pressure, HR and RR, as previous studies suggest (Hill,
1993). In our study, the reduction of arterial pressure and
HR was not associated with hemodynamic instability. Vital Acknowledgments
sign values after massage remained within normal limits.
We considered that it was a positive result because it is in None.
accordance with the physiologic effects of massage, such as
decrease of sympathetic activity, vasodilatation, relaxation
and pain relief. It is noteworthy that our population References
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