Research Update: Mind-Body Therapies to Decrease Anxiety in Children

Mind-body therapies prove effective in helping children with pain and anxiety

Published in Spring 2017

Johns Hopkins Bayview pediatrician and NIH-funded mind-body researcher Erica Sibinga, M.D., is part of an international team that reviewed studies of mind-body therapies for children, including yoga, meditation, hypnosis and guided imagery. Research findings show many of these mind-body therapies are safe and potentially effective in helping children in a number of ways, including with pain and anxiety.

Dr. Sibinga contributed to the American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Report, designed to inform health care professionals about mind-body therapies and to help them guide pediatric patients and their parents when considering use of these therapies to improve children’s concentration, decrease pain, control discomfort and ease anxiety.

The Johns Hopkins Bayview campus is home to $100 million in Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine research and $213 million in National Institutes of Health research. Some areas of research focus include aging, dementia, addiction, drug abuse, obesity and metabolism, allergy and immunology, thoracic oncology, frailty, sleep, burns and much more.