Development of Mind-Body Interventions for the Emergency Department

Emergency department (ED) visits are a common experience that most individuals will have across their lifetime. ED-based evaluation for acute complaints can be fraught with anxiety and stress due to diagnostic uncertainty, long waiting and boarding times, and the harsh, stimulating environment of the ED. Modulating the physical ED environment can be time consuming, expensive and given regulations, at times nearly impossible. Increased patient stress and anxiety is associated with persistent hypertension, inflammation, and worsening patient experience. Mind-body interventions (MBIs) are nonpharmacologic interventions that leverage the bidirectional relationship between physiological and psychological processes to address universal distress, pain and other commonalities among the ED experience. Many of these interventions like music, mindfulness and acupuncture have been successfully deployed in other clinical settings to mitigate components of stress and improve the patient experience. These interventions have the potential to address the commonalities surrounding ED distress. In this concepts piece we describe MBIs, their potential application in the ED and future directions for research on MBIs in the emergency department.