Affirmation-tapping to reduce pain perception and glutamate serum levels of post-cesarean patients

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 post-surgical 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.