Progressive muscle relaxation technique on anxiety and depression among persons affected by leprosy

Abstract

Anxiety and depression have been found to be increasing among peo-ple with leprosy and it may lead to decreased social participation. The progressive muscle relaxation technique (PMRT) is widely used today in choice of treatment for reducing the anxiety and depression. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of PMRT in reducing anxiety and depression among the hospitalized leprosy affected person in a tertiary care centre. This study is a case series of 50 leprosy affected people aged between 18-60 years who were admitted for leprosy com-plications in tertiary leprosy referral hospital. The Anxiety-Depression scale was developed and validated by the investigators and adminis-tered before intervention of PMRT and after 2 weeks. The follow-up as-sessment was done at 6 weeks after the initial intervention. The finding shows that a statistically significant difference was observed on anxiety domain before and after application of PMRT. The anxiety means score showed steady decline from 6.76 at pretest to 3.0 (t=25.068, P≤0.001) at post test and 1.12 (t=22.679, P≤0.001) at follow-up. In depression do-main, a statistically significant difference was seen in before and after application of PMRT. The depression means score showed steady de-cline from 6.92 at pre test to 3.28 (t=16.082, P≤0.001) at post test and to 1.16 (t=18.918, P≤0.001) at follow-up. This study proved that the PMRT as a valid treatment option for hospitalized person with leprosy in mini-mizing the anxiety and depression related symptoms and to benefit the psychosocial wellbeing of leprosy affected patients.