Fear Of Eedles And Anaesthetics

From diabetes to vaccinations, needles are everywhere in the medical field. They can be used to take from the body, or give vital supplements that save lives; however, many have a fear of syringes and other needle like objects making it difficult to provide the much-needed care brought about by hypodermics. The fear of needles, or trypanophobia, is especially prevalent in children, and easily manifests itself into adulthood (Good, 2011). The most common cause, is traumatic experience from repetitive contact with needles and other hypodermic devices. For example, children with diabetes get daily pinpricks in the finger to test their sugar levels. This repeated testing is a well-known catalyst for trypanophobia in younger people (Yoon et al.,
Since approximately 70% of children suffer from some fear or anxiety caused by trypanophobia, many anesthetics and coolants are used to treat the pain younger patients experience (Greenspan, 2016). Vapocoolants such as ethyl vinyl chloride, or application of ice, are methods used to numb the injection site. While these often prevent pain, they do not always keep trypanophobia at bay as the needles are clearly visible. A similar problem is faced when using anesthetics, since the needle can be easily seen puncturing the skin. Also, the time it takes for these pain alleviating methods to take place is often too long (a few minutes up to an hour), meaning the wait time will cause a buildup in fear among some with trypanophobia (Greenspan, 2016). Searching for a quicker way to calm those effected by trypanophobia, many experimental forms of treating the fear of hypodermic equipment are being used such as music to calm down a patient. Though mainly used in children, the musical intervention was found to reduce needle related pain in medical procedures (Good, 2011). As for adults, many are considering a decades old technology to provide what hypodermics do. The
Unfortunately, none can completely eradicate the fear of needles. The jet injector, however, has great value when compared to hypodermics. Not only does it avoid needles entirely, but from a business standpoint it is much more sound being both cleaner and less wasteful (Parsons, 1998). What is missing however, is the commercial availability and ease for the public, such as a device that could give injects instead of the doctors. This would free up manpower, stop complications that are often caused by needles, and could create an automatic system where doctors merely assign what injections the patient would need. In addition, if these devices were available at common pharmaceutical stores, it could save consumers and insurance companies the cost of attending the doctor’s office for a