title: Preprocedural distress in children with cancer: an intervention using biofeedback and relaxation.
abstract: Children diagnosed with cancer experience many invasive procedures throughout diagnosis and treatment of their disease. These procedures, oftentimes a source of distress in children, can elicit a variety of anticipatory symptoms prior to the actual procedure. Although there have been efforts to develop approaches to alleviate this distress through use of distraction, relaxation, sedation, guided imagery, and hypnosis, there has not been a combination treatment that merged relaxation techniques and biofeedback within a pediatric framework. A group of 12 children diagnosed with cancer participated in a 4-session intervention combining relaxation and biofeedback. This feasibility study suggests that the combination intervention offered in a clinical setting may be beneficial to children experiencing procedural distress as a novel coping strategy.
authors.affiliation: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298 , USA. dshockey@mcvh-vcu.edu
authors.forename: Debra P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Shockey
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Menzies
authors.forename: Doris F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Glick
authors.forename: Ann Gill
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boitnott
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rovnyak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D057234:Preoperative Period; D012064:Relaxation Therapy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000628:therapy*
keywords: biofeedback; distress; pediatric cancer; relaxation breathing