Biofeedback Intervention for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression among Graduate Students in Public Health Nursing.

Paul Ratanasiripong,Suda Hanklang,Pornlert Chumchai,Orawan Kaewboonchoo,Nop Ratanasiripong

doi:10.1155/2015/160746

Abstract

Globally, graduate students have been found to have high prevalence of mental health problems. With increasing severity of mental health problems on university campuses and limited resources for mental health treatment, alternative interventions are needed. This study investigated the use of biofeedback training to help reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. A sample of 60 graduate students in public health nursing was randomly assigned to either the biofeedback intervention or the control group. Results indicated that biofeedback intervention was effective in significantly reducing the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression over the 4-week period, while the control group had increases in symptoms of anxiety and depression over the same timeframe. As future leaders in the public health nursing arena, the more psychologically healthy the graduate students in public health nursing are, the better the public health nursing professionals they will be as they go forth to serve the community after graduation.

Highlights

With increasing mental health problems among graduate students globally, more efforts are needed to help graduate students manage their levels of stress, anxiety, and depression
45% were in their first year of their graduate students, 22% were in the second year, 17% were in the third year, 10% were in the fourth year, and 7% were in the fifth year
There were no significant differences in the basic characteristics between the biofeedback and the control groups from the independent sample t-tests, chisquare tests, and Fisher’s exact tests

Summary

Introduction

With increasing mental health problems among graduate students globally, more efforts are needed to help graduate students manage their levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Graduate students in public health nursing must be competent academically and professionally and strive to have good mental and psychological health. There have been only few research studies on the mental health and interventions among graduate students, with limited studies on public health nursing students [1,2,3,4,5]. Taiwanese graduate students were found to have high prevalence rate of fatigue which could lead to other psychological distress [2]. A study among graduate students in public health in Greece found high prevalence of mental health problems that negatively impact their coping and academic performance [3]. Anxiety, and depressive symptoms was found among Thai university students [9, 10]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion