Therapeutic massage and healing touch improve symptoms in cancer. Effects of integrating therapeutic touch into a cognitive behavioral pain treatment program. Report of a pilot clinical trial. Touch the pain away: new research on therapeutic touch and persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. The effects of therapeutic touch on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. A phase II trial of Reiki for the management of pain in advanced cancer patients. Therapeutic touch and postoperative pain: a Rogerian research study. Outcomes of touch therapies during bone marrow transplant. Effects of therapeutic touch on tension headache pain. A pilot feasibility study of the effects of touch therapy on nurses.
Complementary therapies are increasingly used to reduce side effects of cancer treatment, without evidence for their effectiveness. In a randomized, prospective, 2-period, crossover intervention study, the authors tested the effects of therapeutic massage (MT) and healing touch (HT), in comparison to presence alone or standard care, in inducing relaxation and reducing symptoms in 230 subjects. MT and HT lowered blood pressure, respiratory rate (RR), and heart rate (HR). MT lowered anxiety and HT lowered fatigue, and both lowered total mood disturbance. Pain ratings were lower after MT and HT, with 4-week nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug use less during MT. There were no effects on nausea. Presence reduced RR and HR but did not differ from standard care on any measure of pain, nausea, mood states, anxiety, or fatigue. MT and HT are more effective than presence alone or standard care in reducing pain, mood disturbance, and fatigue in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of offering Therapeutic Touch (TT) as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for people with chronic pain. Patients were randomized to relaxation training (control group) or TT plus relaxation (experimental). Subsequently, all participants attended a CBT program. Preprogram and postprogram data were examined to identify patterns of change in pain intensity, self-efficacy, unitary power, disability, and perceived distress. In addition, patterns of attrition were examined. Patients in this study who were randomized to receive TT fared better in terms of enhanced self-efficacy and unitary power, as well as having lower attrition rates. Trends associated TT with less distress and disability. This pilot study suggests that offering TT as an adjunct to CBT may help to improve clinical outcomes, reduce program attrition, and promote unitary power in those who suffer with chronic pain. This pilot study tested the effectiveness of 6 therapeutic touch treatments on the experience of pain and quality of life for persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. Its findings support that subjects who received therapeutic touch had a statistically significant decrease in pain for each pretherapeutic to posttherapeutic touch treatment, as well as significant improvement in quality of life from pre-first to pre-sixth treatment. Therapeutic touch may be an effective treatment for relieving pain and improving quality of life in this specific population of persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. The purpose of this study was to determine if therapeutic touch, an alternative medicine modality, is effective in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee.
                A single-blinded randomized control trial was conducted in a family practice center of a community hospital family practice residency program in Pennsylvania. The patients were between the ages of 40 and 80, had been given a diagnosis of osteoarthritis of at least one knee, had not had knee replacement, and had no other connective tissue disease. The patients were randomized to therapeutic touch, mock therapeutic touch, or standard care. The main outcome measures were pain and its impact, general well-being, and health status measured by standardized, validated instruments, as well as the qualitative measurement of a Depth interview.
                Twenty-five patients completed the study. The treatment group had significantly decreased pain and improved function as compared with the placebo and control groups. The qualitative Depth interview confirmed this result.
                Despite the small numbers, significant differences were found in improvement in function and pain for patients receiving therapeutic touch. A larger study is needed to confirm these results. Alternative therapies can neither be accepted nor rejected without being subjected to the scientific method. This trial compared pain, quality of life, and analgesic use in a sample of patients with cancer pain (n=24) who received either standard opioid management plus rest (Arm A) or standard opioid management plus Reiki (Arm B). Participants either rested for 1.5 hr on Days 1 and 4 or received two Reiki treatments (Days 1 and 4) one hour after their first afternoon analgesic dose. Visual analogue scale (VAS) pain ratings, blood pressure, heart rate, and respirations were obtained before and after each treatment/rest period. Analgesic use and VAS pain scores were reported for 7 days. Quality of life was assessed on Days 1 and 7. Participants in Arm B experienced improved pain control on Days 1 and 4 following treatment, compared to Arm A, and improved quality of life, but no overall reduction in opioid use. Future research will determine the extent to which the benefits attributed to Reiki in this study may have been due to touch. This article details Meehan's research study concerning the conceptualization of therapeutic touch within Rogers' science of unitary human beings and an investigation of the effects of therapeutic touch on pain experience in postoperative patients. Using a single trial, single-blind, three-group design, 108 postoperative patients were randomly assigned to receive one of the following: therapeutic touch, a placebo control intervention which mimicked therapeutic touch, or the standard intervention of a narcotic analgesic. Using a visual analogue scale, pain was measured before and one hour following intervention. The hypothesis, that therapeutic touch would significantly decrease postoperative pain compared to the placebo control intervention, was not supported. Secondary analyses suggest that therapeutic touch may decrease patients' need for analgesic medication. Implications for further research and practice are suggested. The integration of complementary modalities into mainstream healthcare is gaining increasing emphasis. It is important, therefore, to document the effects of these interventions on patient outcomes.
                To investigate the effects of Therapeutic Touch and massage therapy on the outcomes of engraftment time, complications, and perceived benefits of therapy during bone marrow transplant.
                Randomized clinical trial.
                Subjects were adult patients on the bone marrow transplant unit of a large urban tertiary care center.
                Subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups: Therapeutic Touch (TT), massage therapy (MT), and a control group called the friendly visit (FV). Subjects (N = 88) were stratified by type of transplant (allogeneic or autologous). Twenty-seven subjects received MT; 31 received TT; and 30 received FV. Nurses with expertise in the 2 touch therapies administered them. The interventions of MT, TT, and FV were administered according to standarized protocols every third day beginning the day chemotherapy began until discharge from the program.
                Time for engraftment, complications, and patient perceptions of benefits of therapy were the main outcome measures. Analysis of variance and analysis of covariance were used to determine significant differences among the 3 groups with respect to time of engraftment.
                A significantly lower score for central nervous system or neurological complications was noted for subjects who received MT comppared with the control group; however, no differences were found among the 3 groups with respect to the other 10 complication categories or in the total mean score for complications. Patients' perception of the benefits of therapy (total score) was significantly higher for those who received MT compared with the FV control group. The mean scores on the comfort subscale were significantly higher for patients receiving both MT and TT compared with the FV control group.
                Massage therapy may be effective in altering the psychological and neurological complications associated with chemotherapy during bone marrow transplant. Both massage and Therapeutic Touch provide comfort to patients undergoing this challenging process. Therapeutic touch (TT) is a modern derivative of the laying on of hands that involves touching with the intent to help or heal. This study investigated the effects of TT on tension headache pain in comparison with a placebo simulation of TT. Sixty volunteer subjects with tension headaches were randomly divided into treatment and placebo groups. The McGill-Melzack Pain Questionnaire was used to measure headache pain levels before each intervention, immediately afterward, and 4 hours later. A Wilcoxon signed rank test for differences indicated that 90% of the subjects exposed to TT experienced a sustained reduction in headache pain, p less than .0001. An average 70% pain reduction was sustained over the 4 hours following TT, which was twice the average pain reduction following the placebo touch. Using a Wilcoxon rank sum test, this was statistically significant, p less than .01. Study results indicated that TT may have potential beyond a placebo effect in the treatment of tension headache pain. The White House Commission on Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) has recommended that safe and effective CAM practices be evaluated to determine their role in maintaining wellness and promoting health. There is little research on individual bodywork/energy therapies and their effects on wellness. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the effect of AMMA treatments on relaxation and anxiety in staff nurses, and to examine themes describing the nurses' experiences. It was hypothesized that nurses receiving AMMA treatments would demonstrate reduced anxiety, as measured by a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and increased relaxation, measured by physiologic parameters. The study was designed as a prospective, randomized, blinded clinical trial, with convenience sampling of 24 nurses working 12-hour shifts. While both groups demonstrated decreased anxiety after intervention, the experimental group consistently showed greater differences between pre- and post-treatment anxiety scores. The mean change in physiologic parameters between groups was not significant. Themes derived from a final interview included: importance of touch in nursing care, stress reduction, increased self-awareness, the need for self-care and a new understanding of the mind-body connection. Outcomes suggest the need for further research with a larger population to assess this intervention's impact on anxiety, stress, self-care and caring relationships.
Touch therapies may have a modest effect in pain relief. More studies on HT and Reiki in relieving pain are needed. More studies including children are also required to evaluate the effect of touch on children.