Uso de auriculoterapia no cuidado da saúde mental de professores e alunos de instituições de ensino superior: revisão integrativa

Abstract

The human being as an individual is plural, so their personality, life, expectations and perspectives are different, yet mental health has been treated with care all over the world, due to the various signs and symptoms that have been identified in different people. Not so far from this, the number of students and professors requiring psychological and psychiatric assistance in higher education institutions is increasing. Integrative and Complementary Health Practices (PICs) are a set of practices that have been linked to or used in addition to traditional pharmacological treatments, one of which is auriculotherapy, a traditional Chinese medicine practice that has been gaining widespread acceptance in Western culture. The aim of this study was to analyze evidence in the literature about the use of auriculotherapy as an alternative practice in the mental health care of students and professors at higher education institutions and thus answer the following question: What are the benefits of auriculotherapy for improving the mental health of teachers and students at higher education institutions? This is a qualitative study using the integrative literature review method, where searches were carried out in the main databases: CAPES, LILACS, SCIELO, PUBMED and MEDLINE. Thirty-six works on the subject were found in the literature. After analysis, these were summarized in four works on the subject that were able to answer the question. After analyzing the data and the results of the researchers' perspectives, it can be concluded that auriculotherapy has proved to be effective in improving the quality of life and mental health of the patients involved, however, the number of studies is still scarce, demonstrating that there is a need for more research on the subject, as well as a need for PICS to be more widespread within universities.