Affirmation-Tapping to Reduce Pain Perception and Glutamate Serum Levels of Post-cesarean Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Affirmation, by praying and positive evaluation accompanied by acupoint stimulation, has
been shown to reduce pain in postoperative patients. In other studies, affirmations can reduce chronic pain
due to the down-regulation performance of Glutamate receptors. Acupuncture can reduce pain complaints
by modulating Glutamate at the spinal level. So it is suspected that affirmation-tapping can reduce postsurgical pain due to modulation of Glutamate; however clinical studies have not been conducted. The
aim is to compare the pain perception of postoperative patients given affirmation-tapping therapy with
other treatment patients as complementary nursing interventions. This is to see if the modulation of the
performance of serum Glutamate levels is different from other treatments. Methods: We used a randomized
post-test control group design that was performed parallel in post-cesarean patients. A sample of 40 patients
was divided into four groups (10 in affirmations, 10 in tapping, 10 in affirmation-tapping and 10 in controls).
They were obtained through simple random sampling. The instruments included affirmation-tapping guides,
Elisa kits and McGill Melzack Pain’s short questionnaire form (MPQ-sf). The independent variable was
the affirmation-tapping intervention and the dependent variable was the perception of pain and Glutamate
serum level. Data were analyzed using simple linear regression. Results: The average of Glutamate levels
in the Affirmation-tapping treatment group was lower (0. 034±0. 004) pg/mL and significantly different
(Sig=0.00) from other groups (0. 056±0. 011) pg/mL. Conclusion: Affirmation-tapping as a complementary
nursing intervention decreases pain perception and Glutamate serum levels in patients post-cesarean section
that supports conventional treatment. Affirmation-tapping is recommended as an intervention to overcome
pain perception in postoperative nursing patients who support conventional treatment.