Energy Therapy and Meditation Based Practice to Alleviate Sleep Difficulties in Adolescents and Young Persons With Liver Disease and Liver Transplantation

Sleep difficulties have been identified as one of the most distressing symptoms for adolescents with Chronic Liver Disease (CLD), Autoimmune Liver Disease (AILD) and Liver Transplantation (LT), sleep difficulties have a direct negative impact on quality of life. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms for this are complex. In addition Adolescents with chronic illness tend to have a higher rate of mental health problems than the general population. The complexity of sleep deprivation, fatigue, stress and anxiety, may well all be contributory factors to these patients having poor adherence to their medication. This in turn has a negative impact on the success of their tissue graft or indeed increases the likelihood for transplant surgery.

Due to the risks of medication toxicity and dependency, there is a need for further research to address the issues of insomnia, stress and anxiety with a non - pharmacological approach for these Adolescent chronically ill patients. Meditation Based Practices and Energy Therapies (Acupuncture) have gained robust scientific evidence over the last 20 years to demonstrate their efficacy for patients with insomnia, stress and anxiety.

This study aims to demonstrate the benefits of a non - touch Energy Therapy (ET) and a Meditation Based Practice (MBP) to relieve symptoms of insomnia, stress and anxiety in Adolescents with CLD, ALD and LT. The participants will be 16 - 24 years old. The intervention will have 3 groups, Standard of Care Group, MBP and ET. The intervention will be for 8 weeks with the ET and MBP group each receiving 1 hour of therapy each week for 8 weeks. The data will be collected with questionnaires and actigraph wrist devices.