Effects on Anxiety and Vital Signs of the Emotional Freedom Technique and Music Before Surgery for Lumbar Disc Hernia

Context: Patients hospitalized for surgical treatment for lumbar disc herniation (LDH) are adversely affected psychologically, with fury, anger, helplessness, anxiety, and depression being observed in patients. Anxiety in particular is a common problem, with an incidence of around 90%.

Objective: This study intended to determine the effects on patients’ anxiety and vital signs of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and music before LDH surgery.

Design: The research team designed a quasi-experimental study.

Setting: The research was carried out in the neurosurgery clinic of a university hospital in Turkey.

Participants: Participants were 162 adult patients at the clinic who had LDH surgery between February 2018 and September 2019.

Intervention: Using the nonprobability sampling method, participants were allocated to one of three groups: (1) 54 to the music group, an intervention group; (2) 54 patients to the EFT group, an intervention group; and (3) 54 to the control group.

Outcome Measures: The Patient Information Form, Life Findings Form, Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) scale, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory–State Anxiety (STAI-S) were used to collect data. In the data analysis, the numbers, percentages, means, standard deviations, and chi-square values were found, and the t test and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in the dependent and independent groups, respectively. The Tukey test was used for further analysis.

Results: EFT and music were determined to significantly reduce participants’ state anxiety and subjective discomfort (p<0.001). EFT significantly reduced the pulse and respiratory rates and the systolic blood pressure, and music significantly lowered the diastolic and systolic blood pressures (p<0.05). Further analyses showed that EFT was more effective on state anxiety and reducing the respiratory rate than music.

Conclusions: Both music and EFT before LDH surgery reduced anxiety and regulated vital signs, and EFT was found to be more effective than music in regulating anxiety and respiratory rate.