Reiki protocol for pre-operative anxiety, depression and well-being: non-randomized controlled clinical trial

Introduction: The Reiki technique has several advantages evidenced by the literature, such as: reduction of anxiety, pain, fatigue, stress and depression, increase of immunity and decrease of pressure levels (1,2). However, in these reviews, there are no clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of the technique in cardiac surgery, validating whether it can be useful in contributing to the patient, either in the subjective dimension, in facing the surgical procedure or in recovery from surgery ( 1,2-8).
Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of Reiki in anxiety, depression and preoperative well-being in cardiac surgery.
Method: Non-randomized controlled clinical trial with two arms performed at a referral hospital in cardiology with patients in the preoperative period of cardiac surgery, with up to five days for surgery between May and November 2018. In- , waiting for surgery and aware of the date of the surgery, up to five days in advance for the surgery. Patients with congenital aortic or cardiac diseases, emergency or emergency surgeries, antipsychotic and anxiolytic drugs and mental and cognitive alterations that prevented from answering the questions were excluded. The Intervention group (n = 31) underwent a Reiki protocol and the control group (n = 59) received only conventional care.
Result: The difference between the groups was not significant for any of the variables, indicating that the groups were homogeneous for the same, although not randomized. The mean of anxiety and depression did not show a significant difference between the groups, but, more discreetly, the Reiki group presented slightly better results. Spiritual well-being, in its religious and existential dimensions, had a significant improvement.
Conclusion: Anxiety and depression were lower in the intervention group, with no statistically significant difference. There was a better result in the evaluation of well-being in the intervention group. Religiousness may in some cases interfere with the acceptance of holistic and integrative practices. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials: RBR-4cxw37