Effectiveness of auriculotherapy for anxiety, stress or burnout in health professionals: a network meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the effectiveness of auriculotherapy, when compared to the control group, placebo or usual treatment for anxiety, stress or burnout in health professionals. METHOD: a systematic review conducted in nine information sources, being selected experimental or quasi-experimental studies with auriculotherapy intervention in health professionals, compared to control, placebo or usual treatment groups. Descriptive analysis and network meta-analysis by means of direct and indirect comparison. Quality of the outcomes was assessed with the Confidence in Network Meta-analysis. RESULTS: 15 articles were included: 66.6% with Nursing teams and 53.3% with interventions involving semi-permanent needles. The shen men, brainstem, kidney, sympathetic, lung and liver acupoints predominated. There was a reduction in anxiety with semi-permanent needles (CI -8.18, -6.10), magnetic palettes (CI -7.76, -5.54), placebo (CI -5.47, -3.36) and seeds (CI -6.35, -4.05); as well as in stress with semi-permanent needles (CI -37.21, -10.88) and seeds with (CI -28.14, -11.70) and without a closed protocol (CI -36.42, -10.76). Meta-analysis was unfeasible for burnout; however, significant reductions were verified when it was treated with auriculotherapy. CONCLUSION: Auriculotherapy is effective to reduce anxiety and stress in health professionals; however, this assertion cannot be made in the case of burnout. It was evidenced that workers’ health is favored with the use of auriculotherapy.