A new research suggests that a cure peppered with imagery is not only cheap and easy but extremely affective in banishing the persistent stomach aches in children.
Miranda van Tilburg, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who led the study stated, “What is especially exciting about our study is that children can clearly reduce their abdominal pain a lot on their own with guidance from audio recordings, and they get much better results that way than from medical care alone."
A novel technique to tackle stomach ache
The study analyzed 30 children aged 6 to 15 years who were diagnosed with persistent abdominal pain for apparently no reason and administered standard medical care.
Fifteen children were provided imagery guidance in addition to medical treatment, while the remaining half received only medicines for a period of eight weeks.
The treatment procedure included DVD and CD’s instructing children to use at home. The focus was to divert the kid’s attention from the existing aches.
The therapy procedure consisted of a series of four biweekly 20-minute sessions, along with shorter 10-minute daily sessions. The CD directed the children to imagine "floating comfortably on a big, puffy cloud", or to visualize an object melting into the kids' hands "like butter and making the hand shiny and warm", and then instructing the kids to put that hand on their belly, "imagining the light and warmth spreading throughout their belly and making a protective barrier inside that does not let anything irritate the belly."
Observations by the researchers
After eight weeks of the study researchers noted that stomach pains in 63 percent of the kids using imagery was cut by half as opposed to 27 percent in the children receiving only standard medical intervention.
In addition, they also observed that the children who were administered only medicines in the initial stages of the study and later assigned the guided imagery therapy also reported a 50 percent reduction in their belly aches.
On the whole, by employing the unique technique of imagery, the condition of two thirds of the children demonstrated a marked improvement in their stomach aches.
Reasons behind therapy ambiguous
The researchers are unclear as to how or why the technique works. They suspect the conjuring up of images distracts attention from the actual pain thereby reducing discomfort and anxiety levels and influencing the pain response.
Earlier studies have established that imagery is an effective stress management tool used by thousands of people to reduce tension and pressures in life.
The researchers stated, "Such self-administered treatment is, of course, very inexpensive and can be used in addition to other treatments, which potentially opens the door for easily enhancing treatment outcomes for a lot of children suffering from frequent stomach aches.
"Children are very good at using their imagination - when you use this in adults you have to overcome a barrier first."
The study is slated for publication in the November issue of Paediatrics.
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