Trial reportAdvances in neonatal care : official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses2014
A randomized-controlled trial pilot study examining the neurodevelopmental effects of a 5-week M Technique intervention on very preterm infants.
Trial report in Advances in neonatal care : official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Eligibility Criteria and Representativeness of Randomized Clinical Trials That Include Infants Born Extremely Premature: A Systematic Review.The Journal of pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of interventions on early neurodevelopment of preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Female metabolic resilience and male-biased protein quality defects under hypoxia in human brain organoids.iScience · 2026Article
- Brain organoids for hypoxic-ischemic studies: from bench to bedside.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2023Review
- Precision caffeine therapy for apnea of prematurity and circadian rhythms: New possibilities open up.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Therapeutic Alliance as Active Inference: The Role of Therapeutic Touch and Synchrony.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Sources of clinically significant neonatal intensive care unit phthalate exposure.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2020Article
- Observational
- Neonatal intensive care unit phthalate exposure and preterm infant neurobehavioral performance.PloS one · 2018Article
- Regions of variable DNA methylation in human placenta associated with newborn neurobehavior.Epigenetics · 2016Article
- Impact of hospital-based environmental exposures on neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm infants.Current opinion in pediatrics · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeTo systematically test the cumulative effect of the M Technique on infant neurodevelopment in hospitalized very preterm infants.
designA pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT). SUBJECTS: Twenty very preterm infants (<30 weeks gestation with average birth weights <1000 g) were randomly assigned to nontreatment or treatment groups. The study period began once the infants reached 30 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA).
methodsEach infant received standard neonatal intensive unit (NICU) care or standard NICU care plus a 7-minute M Technique session, 6 times per week for 5 weeks. Neurobehavioral development (using the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale [NNNS]) and growth velocity (difference in infant weight at the beginning and end of protocol) were compared between the 2 groups. Physiologic parameters (heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturations) and infant behavioral states were measured 5 minutes before, during, and up to 10 minutes postintervention continuously on all infants in the treatment group at 3 different gestational time points (30, 32, and 34 weeks PMA) over the 5-week period.
resultsMann-Whitney U analyses revealed no differences between the 2 groups on all 12 NNNS summary score domains but a difference in growth velocity between the 2 groups (P = 0.005). Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed significant physiologic differences of mean heart rate, respiratory rate, and SaO2 (F = 41.116, P < 0.0005) and behavioral states (F = 38.564, P < 0.0005) from baseline to 10 minutes after the M Technique intervention across all 3 time points. State scores decreased from baseline (M = 6.11) to post intervention (M = 1.4) at all 3 time points.
conclusionsThis pilot RCT demonstrates the utility of the M Technique in hospitalized very preterm infants starting at 30 weeks PMA with notable evidence of positive weight, physiological, and behavioral state adaptations. Additional research is needed with a larger, randomized design to determine short- and long-term effects specifically related to neurological outcomes.
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Registered trials
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