María del Pino Quintana-Montesdeoca

The competitive calendars in sports often lead to fluctuations in the effort-recovery cycle and sleep quality. NESA noninvasive neuromodulation, achieved through microcurrent modulation of the autonomic nervous system, holds promise for enhancing sleep quality and autonomic activation during stressful situations. The objective of this study was to analyze the sleep and recovery responses of basketball players over six weeks of training and competition, with the integration of NESA noninvasive neuromodulation. A preliminary experimental study involving 12 participants was conducted, with a placebo group (n = 6) and an intervention group (n = 6) treated with NESA noninvasive neuromodulation. Sleep variables and biomarkers such as testosterone, cortisol, and the cortisol:testosterone ratio were analyzed to assess player recovery and adaptations. Significant differences were observed in total, duration, and REM sleep variables (p-value= < 0.001; 0.007; <0.001, respectively) between the intervention and placebo groups. The intervention group demonstrated increased duration of sleep variables. Cortisol levels showed normalization in the experimental group, particularly in the last two weeks coinciding with the start of playoffs. This study highlights the potential of NESA noninvasive neuromodulation to enhance sleep quality despite challenging circumstances, providing valuable insights into the management of athlete recovery in competitive sports settings.

The physiotherapist inevitably experiences clinical uncertainty, as they treat a wide variety of pathologies and, in some situations, will be the first professional contact. However, clinical uncertainty has yet to be sufficiently studied in physiotherapy and is not explicitly contemplated in physiotherapist training. This research aims to evaluate recent physiotherapy graduates’ tolerance to clinical uncertainty to determine their educational needs. A cross-sectional quantitative observational study was conducted in which the sample consisted of 31 recent graduates. They were given a self-developed questionnaire to assess “Tolerance to Uncertainty in Physiotherapy” (TUP). The results showed that the mean score obtained was 57.7 (6.49) points, with a minimum of 43 and a maximum of 69 points. The dimension “sources of uncertainty” scored the highest. The results revealed a profile of novice physiotherapists with a medium intolerance to uncertainty, nervous about unknown diagnoses. It is necessary to consider tolerance to uncertainty in the curricular programmes of physiotherapy degrees that can cover the needs described here.