Key result
Manual therapy is linked to a ~10 bpm drop in resting HR and reduced student stress.
Why the study?
Does a manual therapy program improve psychological stress and autonomic nervous system modulation in young healthy volunteers preparing for university?
Does a manual therapy program improve psychological stress and autonomic nervous system modulation in young healthy volunteers preparing for university?
A 9-week manual therapy program significantly reduced psychological stress and resting heart rate while increasing parasympathetic tone in young healthy volunteers preparing for university.
May reduce exam stress and resting HR in students; hypothesis-generating, requiring RCTs before practice change.
OBJECTIVES: We aimed to appraise the effects of a manual therapy program (MTP) on stress by modulation of autonomic nervous system evaluated by rate heart variability before and after the treatment. METHODS: The study design used was quasi-experimental, pre-post-test of MTP. The sessions were applied during 45 min, twice a week, for 9 weeks. Psychological stress was evaluated using adolescents stress questionnaire (ASQ). Beat-to-beat rate heart frequency (HR, bpm) were recorded in 16 young healthy volunteers (19-20 years old; 8 women) 15 min before and after the first and the last session with S810i - Polar® -Finland in supine position. Descriptors of the Poincaré plot and time domain of HR variability (HRV) were analyzed in 5 min (Kubios HRV Analysis Software). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: ANOVA followed Tukey or Bonferroni and t Student tests paired and unpaired tests, considering p<0.05 as significant. RESULTS: MTP reduced ASQ values from 143 ± 8 to 114 ± 6 and HR from 81+4 to 71+2 bpm. Significantly effects were also found post-MTP in HRV time domain, analyzed at linear and geometric way, sowing an overall increased on parasympathetic tonus and on global activity of heart. CONCLUSION: The students enrolled in the MTP showed improved psychological and physiological health status from pre to post-treatment and the increased on parasympathetic tonus and in the global activity of heart contributed to this effect.
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Aparecida et al. (2017) studied Psychological stress (n=16). Manual therapy program vs. Pre-treatment (baseline) was evaluated on Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ) score (p=0.0005). A 9-week manual therapy program significantly reduced Adolescent Stress Questionnaire scores from 143 to 114 and resting heart rate from 81 to 71 bpm in students preparing for university exams.
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