ArticleExperimental and therapeutic medicine2019
Efficacy of relaxation therapy as an effective nursing intervention for post-operative pain relief in patients undergoing abdominal surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Experimental and therapeutic medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 15 papers, 3 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.
The Effection Pain and Anxiety of a Breathing Exercise Applied Following Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Randomized Controlled Study
Evaluation of the Effect of Relaxation Exercise and Virtual Reality Application on Pain, Trismus, Sleep, Kinesiophobia and Anxiety Level After Impacted Third Molar Dental Surgery
The Effect of Postoperative Progressive Relaxation Exercises on Pain, Anxiety, and Physiological Parameters in Emergency General Surgery Patients: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative Effectiveness of Different Exercises for Reducing Pain Intensity in Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Sports medicine - open · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of non-pharmacological interventions on pain in wound patients during dressing change: A systematic review.Nursing open · 2024Pooled it
- The effect of Benson relaxation technique on cancer patients: a systematic review.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2023Pooled it
- Can Patient-centered Education and Pain Management Delivered by Coaches Improve Pain Outcomes After Orthopaedic Trauma? A Randomized Trial.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2024Trial
- Effectiveness of postoperative progressive relaxation exercises on pain, anxiety, and physiological parameters after emergency abdominal surgery: a randomized controlled trial.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Effects of nursing interventions on clinical outcomes in patients undergoing abdominal surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of education and health promotion · 2026Article
- Evaluating Physical and Occupational Therapists' and Assistants' Experiences Implementing an Electronic Health Record-Based Intervention to Support Perioperative Patients' Use of Nonpharmacological Pain Management Techniques.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation · 2025Article
- Postoperative multimodal pain management: a narrative review of current practices, clinical and educational gaps, and future directions.Frontiers in anesthesiology · 2025Article
- Effect of the Finger Grip Relaxation Technique on Pain Levels Among Children Who Underwent Abdominal Surgery.Cureus · 2025Article
- Efficacy of Progressive Muscle Relaxation in Adults for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: A Systematic Review.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Review
- Frailty: the perioperative and anesthesia challenges of an emerging pandemic.Journal of anesthesia · 2023Review
- Hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial of guided relaxation and acupuncture for chronic sickle cell disease pain (GRACE): A protocol.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2023Article
- Complementary Therapy Learning in the Setting of Lung Transplantation: A Single-Center Observational Study of Appropriation and Efficacy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Exploring Non-pharmacological Methods for Pre-operative Pain Management.Frontiers in surgery · 2022Review
- A systematic review of non-pharmacological interventions used for pain relief after orthopedic surgical procedures.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2020Article
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 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted with the aim of assessing the efficacy of relaxation techniques for pain relief in patients undergoing abdominal surgery. The electronic search of the PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and Google Scholar databases was performed for studies in the English language published up to May, 2019. A total of 12 studies were included in the review and 7 in the meta-analysis. In total, 4 relaxation techniques were utilized in the included studies: Jaw relaxation, Benson's relaxation, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and systematic relaxation. Of the 12 included, 10 studies demonstrated statistically significant pain relief in the relaxation group as compared to the controls. The data of 422 patients in the relaxation group and 424 patients in the control group were pooled for a meta-analysis, which indicated that patients undergoing abdominal surgery had significantly greater pain relief following relaxation therapy as compared to the controls [random: standardized mean difference (SMD), -1.15; 95% CI, -2.04 to -0.26; P<0.00001). The overall quality of the studies was not high. On the whole, despite trials demonstrating the benefits of relaxation therapy for immediate pain relief in patients post-abdominal surgery, there is lack of high-quality scientific evidence substantiating its routine use. There is a need for more robust randomized control trials (RCTs) utilizing standardized relaxation protocols to provide further evidence on this subject.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.