Effect of Vestibular Stimulation on Depression, Anxiety, Stress in Gastric Ulcer Patients

Aim: The present study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of vestibular stimulation in the management of stress in gastric ulcers patients. Materials and Methods: This was a longitudinal follow-up study in which participants were assessed for stress parameters for 3 times. Before the intervention and after 3 months and 6 months of the intervention. 12 females of gastric ulcers were recruited for the study after written informed consent by convenient sampling. Permission obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee of Sattva Cultural Space and Research Centre, Angamaly. Six months of vestibular stimulation was given. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0. All the data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. The pre and post data were analyzed using paired t-test. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Depression, anxiety, and stress levels are significantly decreased after 3 months of vestibular stimulation (P < 0.05) when compared with baseline values. Scores further decreased after 6 months of intervention (P < 0.05) which indicates long-term intervention is beneficial. Conclusion: Our study results preliminary support the hypothesis that vestibular stimulation may be effective natural supplementary therapy in the management of gastric ulcers. Hence, we recommend further detailed studies in this area with higher sample size to understand the underlying mechanisms and to recommend vestibular stimulation in the treatment of gastric pathology.