Not many people are fond of needles, but for some patients, there is no technique or distraction that can ease their anxiety for those dreaded shots.

But one Australian hospital has published a study on a new procedure that has shown great success for helping needle-phobic patients.

Between the years of 2012 and 2016, the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne experimented with delivering nitrous oxide to patients with anxiety and developmental disorders, who were looking for a way to calm down.

The treatment was only used as a last resort for when distraction techniques and play therapy failed. The suggested nitrous approach had a success rate of 95% – and the 5% of patients who did not endure the shots were those who simply rejected the nitrous treatment. The median age of the patients who elected the nitrous procedure was 13 years old, and 59% of them had been officially diagnosed with a phobia of needles.

Sonja Elia, who is a co-author of the study and a nurse practitioner in the hospital's immunization department, says that she hopes that nitrous can be more widely implemented for patients who cannot be calmed – although, she emphasized that the treatment should only be used when all other techniques have failed.

"Working through needle phobia requires flexibility and the implementation of a range of techniques, escalating up to sedation," she told Pharmacy News. "Once these techniques prove unsuccessful, we would then consider nitrous and oral sedation, depending on the level of anxiety."

Be Sure And Share The Good News With Your Needle Phobic Friends – Photo by Selmaemiliano, CC