Fasciatherapy and Reflexology compared to Hypnosis and Music Therapy in Daily Stress Management

Abstract

Background: Patients suffering from stress symptoms due to every-day life who are looking for a non-pharmacological response to their relief expectation are many. Furthermore, early reckoning of the day-to-day stress which may lead to clinical diagnosis is the best way of preventing the stress-related diseases. Among the many alternative medicinal options, there is little evidence that fasciatherapy (Fs) and reflexology (Rf) are effective in this field.

Purpose: assess incidence of fasciatherapy Danis Bois Method (DBM) and of reflexology on patients' stress level in everyday-life, and provide a more informed choice among the numerous mind and body techniques by comparing them with hypnosis (Hp) and music therapy (Mt).

Settings: Specialized Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) centres for outpatients.

Participants: 308 individuals (average age = 50.53 SD 14.37, 93 males, 215 females) going to the centres for health care, but free from serious diseases and not heavily medicated respecting the inclusion criteria and providing valid forms.

Research design: Four armed, non-randomized observational pragmatic trial with pretest-posttest repeated measures, on separate samples of natural groups.

Intervention: According to the centre participants where they used to be treated, they were exposed to a single semi-standardized session of a technique of their choice: Fs, Rf, Hp, Mt. Volunteers had a controlled non-intervention resting (Rt) session.

Main outcome measures: Mean STAI-Y assessing anxiety as reflecting the stress level: MANCOVA and ANCOVA performed with Tukey's HSD.

Results: MANCOVA indicates a significant reduction of anxiety (p < .01) in each condition, resting included. ANCOVA performance adjusting on stress level in T0 (41.73) and on the mean sumscore of the trait (44.89), Fs (-13.92), Rf (-15.92), and Hp (-15.88) were equally effective on the stress level decrease. Mt (-10.0) and Rt (-6.38) showed the same level of effectiveness.

Conclusions: The results suggest fasciatherapy DBM, hypnosis, and reflexology could be used as non-pharmacological and safe interventions in stress management. Though showing a lesser efficiency, music therapy could be useful in different circumstances.

Keywords: STAI-Y; daily stress; fasciatherapy; hypnosis; music therapy; reflexology; single session.

Figure 1

Symptomatic and asymptomatic participants at T₀ and T₁ who benefited from the session. According to STAI-state evaluation, symptomatic people score > 39, asymptomatic score < 40. The percentage of symptomatic participants at baseline (T₀) becoming asymptomatic after session (T₁) is respectively: 92.86% in the Fasciatherapy, 80.85% in the Reflexology, 75.0% in the Hypnosis, 70.37% in the Music Therapy, 60.0% in the non-intervention Resting groups.

Figure 2

Efficacy rate (or success rate) in each technique can be expressed as the ratio of the magnitude of the gain obtained T₀–T_{1 (}difference between T₀ at pre-session and T₁ at post-session state sumscore) to the maximum potential gain. It shows the percentage of the maximum expected improvement reached. T₀ state being adjusted with the ANCOVA to 41.73, the maximum potential gain in each technique is 41.73-20 = 21.73. Thus, efficacy rate of each technique is: Fs 13.92/21.73, Rf 15.92/21.73, Hp 15.88/21.73, Mt 10.10/21.73, Rt 6.38/21.73.

Figure 3

Over rest gain. Since resting is a common condition to the five groups, we considered what amount of additional over rest gain is provided by the four interventions. Adjusted with the ANCOVA to T₀ State 41.73 and Trait 44.89, over the 6.38 resting gain, the additional benefit of each technique is: Fs: + 7.54, Rf: + 9.54, Hp: + 9.50 and Mt: + 3.72.