WATSU® Reported As Effective In Reduction Of Pain And Stress & Improvements In Life Quality
Updated: Aug 12, 2022
A worldwide survey conducted in seven languages and given to 191 practitioners of Watsu® reports "relatively high ratings of observed effectiveness of Watsu®.
Watsu® was frequently applied in healthy individuals (including during pregnancy), and individuals in various pain (e.g., low back pain, neck pain, myofascial pain, fibromyalgia) and stress-related (e.g., stress, depression, sleep disorders, fatigue, anxiety disorders) conditions.
Frequently confirmed effects were physical relaxation, relief of physical tension, pain relief, increased mobility and flexibility, improved quality of life, spiritual experiences, and increased psychological health..."
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From the article:
Abstract
Introduction
Watsu®... is a treatment administered in warm water. The present study investigated if and how frequently scientifically studied application areas and effects of WATSU occur in practice, whether similar effectiveness of WATSU is observed in trials and practice, and whether practitioners can contribute additional application areas and effects of WATSU.
Methods
Application areas and effects of Watsu® reported in a recent systematic review were extracted verbatim to be assessed in a worldwide multilingual cross section online survey, generating quantitative and qualitative data. A pre-test and retest were conducted to ensure quality and evaluate the questionnaire's psychometric properties.
Results
Answers of 191 respondents were processed. All proposed 26 application areas and 20 effects were confirmed, each with relatively high ratings of observed effectiveness of Watsu®. Watsu®was frequently applied in healthy individuals (including during pregnancy), and individuals in various pain- (e.g., low back pain, neck pain, myofascial pain, fibromyalgia) and stress-related (e.g., stress, depression, sleep disorders, fatigue, anxiety disorders) conditions. Frequently confirmed effects were physical relaxation, relief of physical tension, pain relief, increased mobility and flexibility, improved quality of life, spiritual experiences, and increased psychological health. Respondents contributed 73 additional application areas and effects (both, mental and physical) of Watsu®.
Conclusions
Application areas and effects of Watsu® are consistently employed practically and scientifically. Respondents’ ratings of effectiveness of Watsu® match tentative research efforts. Watsu® is cautiously recommended for the use in pain- and stress-related conditions. Short- and long-term effectiveness of Watsu® need to be evaluated in high level intervention studies.
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