The role of autosuggestion in geriatric patients’ quality of life: a study on psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology pathway

ABSTRACT

Background: There has been no study conducted about the effect of autosuggestion on quality of life for geriatric patients. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of autosuggestion for geriatric patients’ quality of life and its impact on psycho-neuro-endocrine-immune pathway.

Methods: Sixty geriatric patients aged ≥60 years in a ward were randomly assigned to either receive autosuggestion or not. Autosuggestion was recorded in a tape to be heard daily for 30 days. Both groups received the standard medical therapy. Primary outcome was quality of life by COOP chart. Secondary outcomes were serum cortisol level, interleukin-2, interleukin-6, interferon-γ, and N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratio in limbic/paralimbic system by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The study was single blinded due to the nature of the intervention studied.

Results: Out of 60 subjects, 51 finished the study. The autosuggestion group reported better scores than the control one for quality of life, COOP chart 1.95 vs. 2.22 (95% CI, p = 0.02). There were increments of serum cortisol (p = 0.03) and interleukin-6 in the autosuggestion group (p = 0.04). Interleukin-2, interferon-γ, and N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratio in prefrontal cortex showed a tendency to increase in the autosuggestion groups.

Conclusion: Autosuggestion is associated with improvement of geriatrics’ quality of life, serum cortisol level, and adaptive immunity. There is a better trend for neuroplasticity in prefrontal cortex in the autosuggestion group.

KEYWORDS:

• Autosuggestion
• geriatric
• quality of life
• interferon-γ
• neuroplasticity
• serum cortisol

Acknowledgment

The author would like to acknowledge Prof. Sudigdo Sastroasmoro, who has provided a secure randomization direction and service. This study was supported by grants from Universitas Indonesia, Faculty of Medicine Outstanding Research Grant, 2010, no.533/H2.F1.D1.4/HKP.05.00/2010. Ethical approval was obtained from Faculty of Medicine Research Ethics Committee, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta. ESAQoGe ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01681056.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants from Universitas Indonesia, Faculty of Medicine Outstanding Research Grant, 2010, under Grant no. 533/H2.F1.D1.4/HKP.05.00/2010.