Using Mindfulness to Reduce Anxiety During PET/CT Studies

The aims of the present work were to identify the levels of subjective and objective anxiety and heart rate in patients attending a nuclear medicine service to undergo a 18F-FDG PET-CT scan, and to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention based on a mindfulness meditation recording in order to verify the possible immediate effect of reducing anxiety and heart rate. This is a randomized, prospective study with pre- and post-intervention measures. The sample comprises 108 cancer patients attending the nuclear medicine service to undergo a 18F-FDG PET/CT study. Mean age was 58.81 years; 54 were assigned to the experimental group and 54 to the control group. The most frequent location of the primary tumor was in the lymphatic system (22.2%), and the most common treatment was chemotherapy (21.3%). There was no presence of artifacts (97.2%). With regard to the intervention, the group that listened to the mindfulness recording exhibited lower subjective anxiety (F, 526.95; p = 0.000; η² partial = 0.83); lower total anxiety as measured on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scale (F, 271.80; p = 0.000; η² partial = 0.72), and lower heart rate (F, 27.15; p = 0.000; η² partial = 0.84). A single-session mindfulness practice using a meditation recording reduces both subjective and objective anxiety and heart rate in patients undergoing a PET/CT study.