Project Description

Injuries as well as medical interventions can negatively affect mental health in children. Breaking a bone, which happens for 1/3 of all children, leads to post-traumatic stress symptoms in 33% of children [1]. This project will investigate how nervous system stimulation can reduce stress and anxiety during interventions and help to avoid long-term post-traumatic stress.

Children who sustain an injury and may have a limb fracture attend the Emergency Department for assessment and treatment. This process involves triage, initial assessment followed by imaging and analgesia. A child may be waiting for several hours before a diagnosis is made, then several more to wait for a specialist to treat the fracture. Children report multiple factors that make this experience distressing, including the pain of the injury, pain related to treatment, uncertainty while waiting and the deformity they can see [2].

Vagal nerve stimulation has been shown to reduce anxiety in adults [3]. An ultrasound nerve stimulator is painless and noninvasive. Adult patients have been shown to be able to use this device independently at home to achieve enhanced effects over a 4-week period [4]. While the benefits of this vagal nerve stimulation have been demonstrated in adults, there is very little evidence to demonstrate mental health benefits in children.

This project will evaluate the feasibility of undertaking a randomised controlled trial of low-intensity ultrasound vagus nerve stimulation for children presenting to the Emergency Department measuring both short-term and long-term effects on mental health.