A clinical summary for healthcare providers Chronic pain touches roughly a quarter of American adults, and a meaningful share of them live with pain severe enough to limit daily function. With opioid-related harms remaining a major public health concern, clinicians and patients alike are looking harder at non-pharmacological options. A newly published scoping review in the Journal of Pain Research takes a close look at one such option: flotation-REST (Restricted Environmental
A 2024 systematic review identified 63 studies encompassing 1,838 participants from 1960 to May 2024 [1], categorizing flotation-REST research into nine main areas: pain, athletic performance, physiology, stress, consciousness, psychology, creativity, clinical anxiety, sleep, smoking cessation, and miscellaneous applications. Key Research Findings by Domain for Flotation-REST Mental Health & Anxiety (Strongest Evidence) Studies with anxious participants showed substantial red
