Design
stress reduction
The research was conducted as part of the project “Craniosacral therapy in stress reduction”. Experimental sessions were conducted between 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., lasting about 50 min and consisting of 3 parts: Phase 1—participants were exposed to a mental stressor and an osteopathic or placebo session of 20 min. Phase 2 was homologous to Phase 1. Both Phases incorporated baseline (first 5 min), arithmetic task (5 min) and post-stress (5 min) intervals. To determine the effects of stress on the participant's heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR) and skin conductance (SC), values were continuously recorded during phase 1 and phase 2. After 5 min at baseline, an arithmetic test was administered to induce mental workload and psychological stress. For the math stressor, participants performed a series of subtraction problems aloud, continuously for 5 min, and were asked to give answers aloud as fast as possible. They were instructed that the experimenter would correct any errors they made and that they should then continue from the correct number to maintain maximal stress from task involvement and moderate stress task difficulty (approximately 10 correct answers per minuteThe first measurement was taken before starting craniosacral therapy and administering the placebo (9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.). The second measurement was taken after 5 weeks of craniosacral therapy and placebo, at the same hour as the first measurement.