Effects of complementary spiritual therapy on stress, anxiety, burnout syndrome and hematological parameters of professionals in a public hospital: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: This randomized controlled trial evaluated the stress, anxiety, and burnout of professionals exposed to complementary spiritist therapy (CST), which consists in therapeutic resources as prayer, Spiritist passe, fluidic water and spiritual education or control. METHODS: Seventy-six professionals were randomized to CST or control: to maintain the routine for 5 weeks. The ISSL scale, anxiety and depression Beck's indices, Maslach instrument, subjective well-being and WHOQOL-BREF were used at baseline and five-week. Blood count and cytokine dosage were collected at baseline, one-week and five-week. Analysis using the intention to treat approach. RESULTS: The means of variation of stress (exhaustion phase) between baseline and five-week were -1.50 ± 3.31 in the CST and 0.72 ± 3.50 in the control (p=0.036), effect size for CST group was d=0.65, which is considered medium effect. CST showed decrease in emotional exhaustion and negative affects, and increase in lymphocytes, erythrocyte parameters and platelets between the baseline and five-week (p<0.05). Reduction in IL-1ß and increase in total lymphocyte count were observed with 2-3 sessions per week, but that does not maintain when the number of sessions is decreased. Participants receiving ≥7 sessions reduced emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and stress, and improved hematological parameters throughout the study (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: CST may be effective in reducing stress (exhaustion phase) compared to control. Higher frequency of interventions promotes better psychic state, evidenced by large effect size for emotional exhaustion in burnout, and improves hematological parameters of professionals.

Religiousness/Spirituality, Resilience and Burnout in Employees of a Public Hospital in Brazil.

The present study aimed to determine the relation between religiousness/spirituality (R/S), resilience and burnout in employees of a public hospital. A total of 57 participants were evaluated, and the R/S Brief Multidimensional Measure, Pesce and collaborators' resilience scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory were used. Most employees (91.2%) were females. It was observed that the burnout and resilience variables showed statistically significant differences in relation to R/S dimensions. The results identified an association between R/S, resilience and burnout, demonstrating that employees who are more religious and spiritualized have greater resilience and consequently are less often affected by burnout.

Stability of a functional beverage composed by tropical fruits and yacon (Smallanthus sonchiyo- lius) under refrigerated storage.

The development of beverages with functional properties must consider the preservation of the bioactive or functional properties during storage. For this reason, the aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of a functional beverage of tropical fruits and yacon, stored under refrigeration. The beverage, composed by 50% of yacon and 50% of a blended tropical fruits (camu-camu, acerola, cashew-apple, yellow mombin, acai and pineapple), was pasteurized (90 seconds/ 85°C) and stored under refrigeration (5°C). After processing and on 45 day intervals until the end of storage, were assayed the bioactive compounds (ascorbic acid and total extractable polyphenols), antioxidant activity, total soluble solids, titratable total acidity, pH, color (L*, a* and b*), total sugar content, sucrose, glucose and fructose, and nd the physical and chemical analyzes were limited by decreased total antioxidant activity and their bioactive components. The beverage showed relative physical and chemical quality during storage period, and in the 225 days of storage, the total extractable polyphenols and total antioxidant activity showed a significantly decline, and thus , these parameters were evaluated only until this period. However, the main limitation for the beverage storage was due to. sensory acceptability and microbiological safety, which although in accordance with Brazilian legislation, limited storage period for 90 days.