The effect of jaw relaxation on pain anxiety during burn dressings: Randomised clinical trial

Aim

The purpose of this randomised clinical trial (RCT) was to determine the effect of jaw relaxation on pain anxiety related to dressing changes in burn injuries.

Introduction

Patients hospitalised with burns experience high levels of anticipatory anxiety during dressing changes, which cannot be completely managed by anxiolytic drugs. Nurses as members of the burn care team contribute to pain management by using relaxation techniques as one of the most frequently used approaches to pain anxiety management. However, there is not enough information about the effects of these techniques on pain anxiety of patients with burns. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of jaw relaxation on pain anxiety related to dressing changes in burn injuries.

Methods

It was a randomised clinical trial with a control group. A total of 100 patients hospitalised in Shahid Motahari Burn Centre affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences were recruited by convenience sampling and were randomly assigned to either experimental or control groups using minimisation. With institutional approval and written consent, the experimental group practiced jaw relaxation for 20 min before entering the dressing room. Data were collected by the Burn Specific Pain Anxiety Scale (BSPAS) during July–December 2009 and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)-PC (17).

Results

An independent t-test showed no significant difference between mean pain anxiety scores in the experimental and control group before intervention (p = 0.787). A dependent t-test showed significantly less pain anxiety after intervention (before dressing) in the experimental group (p < 0.05). Moreover, the independent t-test showed that the post-dressing pain anxiety of the experimental group was less than the control group (p < 0.05). However, the dependent t-test showed no significant difference between before and after dressing pain anxiety (after intervention) in the experimental group (p = 0.303).

Conclusion

Nurses can independently decrease the pain anxiety of patients with burns and its subsequent physical and psychological burden by teaching the simple and inexpensive technique of jaw relaxation. Further research is needed to study the effect of this technique on pain anxiety of patients suffering from other painful procedures.