Magic Therapy Program Helps Reduce Anxiety.

The experience of stress and fears upon hospitalization is frequent with pediatric patients. However, a program called MagicAid--cofounded by Harrison Pravder and David Elkin, medical students at Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital--helps reduce both patient and caregiver (parent) anxiety by about 25%. The findings are published in Hospital Pediatrics.

"It is important to develop tools to facilitate coping and encourage distraction for patients due to anxieties associated with hospitalization," says Pravder. "Anxiety often arises due to loss of self-determination and separation from home and family in patients, while for parents stress is often related to their child's hospitalization and other concerns such as financial costs, and this...