Guided Imagery for Cardiac ICU & Cardiac Rehab Patients

Preliminary findings are in from Traci Stein, MPH, Director of The Columbia Integrative Medicine Program and whiz statistician, Peri Nemerow, both from Mehmet Oz's group at Columbia Presbyterian. They tested out our new guided imagery for cardiac ICU & cardiac rehab on 20 patients (average age = 63) who'd undergone by-pass, valve replacement and transplant surgeries, and surveyed them for feedback on the imagery. It turned out that 90% liked listening to the tape; 79% would recommend the tape to a friend; 71% thought it made their hospital stay more pleasant; 83.3 % felt it increased their appreciation for being alive; 80% thought it helped them to better savor the things that they loved; 80% thought it gave them confidence they would regain their strength; 66.7% said it made them feel more positively about their scars; 75% felt it made them less depressed; and 80% felt it made them more relaxed. We also think it only fair to tell you that some thought it was weird. Interestingly enough, patients reported similar levels of satisfaction regardless of age or gender, or whether they'd listened to imagery before. Most patients listened to the tape just once. The team is now looking to do further research with a larger sample size, going for more objective outcome measures of things like blood pressure, heart rate, pain and length of stay.