| Massage
Therapy Research
Listed below are health
problems for which Massage therapy has been shown to help. For full details,
please click on the health problem.
Massage
therapy, Electroacupuncture & Cervical Spondylopathy
From Dec.
1990 to Dec. 1993, 278 cases of cervical spondylopathy were treated
with electroacupuncture and massage therapy. The cure rate was 82.7%;
but in the control group, it was only 61%, indicating that
electroacupuncture may enhance the cure rate (P < 0.05). Of the 278
cases treated by three to five sessions, the pain and numbness
disappeared in about 96% of the patients.
J Tradit Chin Med 1997 Jun;17(2):116-8
Luo Z, Luo J
Futian Hospital of
Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen.
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Massage
& Heart or lung transplantation
Manual
vibratory massage is part of the preventive physiotherapeutic activities
performed in intensive care units. The vibratory massage can be
performed manually or as electrovibratory massage. The manual massage is
a fast rhythmical vibration performed by the arm and shoulder muscles of
the masseur and transferred to the patient's thorax by the hand. The
hand of the masseur has to achieve a tremor with a frequency of 8 to 11
tremors/s. The aim of the pilot study was to examine the influence of
manual vibratory massage on the pulmonary function of postoperative
patients who were receiving mechanical ventilation, with special
interest being focused on pulmonary ventilation and perfusion and
cerebral blood flow velocity. Manual vibratory massage was performed
postoperatively in the intensive care unit on eight patients: three
patients had undergone heart transplantation, three had undergone lung
transplantation, and two had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting
(mean age, 53.6+/-8 yr). With the aid of continuous monitoring, we
examined the changes of the respiration parameters and the cerebral
blood flow velocity (measured by transcranial Doppler sonography). The
vibratory massage was performed with a frequency of 8 to 10 vibrations/s
for 15 min, 7.5 min on each side of the thorax, starting from the lower
costal arch and progressing to the upper thoracic aperture. For 10 min
before, during, and 10 min after the massage, the parameters of
peripheral oxygen saturation, central venous pressure, mean arterial
pressure, heart rate, lung resistance and compliance, tidal volume,
respiration rate, and cerebral blood flow velocity were recorded at
2-min intervals. Moreover, before and after vibratory massage, arterial
blood gases were determined. In four of the eight patients, it was
possible to determine pulmonary arterial pressure, pulmonary capillary
wedge pressure, as well as pulmonary vascular resistance. During the
vibratory massage, we could prove a significant increase of the mean
tidal volume by 30% (P = 0.008). The percutaneous oxygen saturation
significantly increased also, from 92 to 93.6% (P = 0.002). Central
venous pressure significantly decreased by 11% (P = 0.04), and pulmonary
vessel resistance was reduced by 18.3% (P = 0.001). The pulmonary
resistance decreased from 10.5 to 9.2 H2O/l/s (P < 0.05) by the end
of the observation period. Cerebral blood flow velocity showed no
significant change. Vibratory massage seems to improve pulmonary
mechanism and perfusion, thus, reducing ventilation perfusion mismatch
and increasing oxygen saturation.
Doering TJ, Fieguth HG, Steuernagel B, Brix J,
Konitzer M, Schneider B, Fischer GC Department
of Study--Ambulance/Rehabilitation, Medical School of Hannover, Germany.
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Massage
therapy & Hospitalized patients
CONTEXT:
Some acute and long-term care facilities are instituting massage therapy
programs to support their patients' health, healing, and quality of
life. Evaluation of the impact of these programs from the perspective of
patients, providers, and therapists is important for administrative
decision making and the design of future outcomes research.
OBJECTIVE: To uncover and elucidate a range of patient outcomes of a
therapeutic massage program within an acute care setting.
DESIGN: Descriptive and qualitative evaluation. Surveys and narrative
reports were completed by 70 patients, 14 healthcare providers, and 4
massage therapists.
SETTING: A large university hospital.
PATIENTS: 113 hospitalized patients received 1 to 4 massages during the
course of their hospital stay.
INTERVENTION: Massage therapy.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Narrative data were coded into 8 categories
(pain, sleep, tension/anxiety, body awareness, physical functioning,
psychological support, enhancing healing, and value). Selected patient
responses were included to elaborate the meanings of these categories.
RESULTS: The most frequently identified outcomes were increased
relaxation (98%), a sense of well-being (93%), and positive mood change
(88%). More than two thirds of patients attributed enhanced mobility,
greater energy, increased participation in treatment, and faster
recovery to massage therapy. Thirty-five percent stated that benefits
lasted more than 1 day.
CONCLUSIONS: The study supported the value of this hospital-based
massage therapy program and uncovered a range of benefits of massage
therapy for hospitalized patients that should be studied further.
J Nurse Midwifery
1999 May-Jun;44(3):217-30 Smith MC, Stallings MA, Mariner S, Burrall M
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Nursing in
Denver, USA.
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Massage
reducing anxiety and improving alertness
There are now a number of research papers demonstrating the beneficial
effects of massage therapy in relation to the physiological and
psycho-logical aspects of stress (see ALTERNATIVES in healthTM Vol
1;2 and Vol 1:5) and the latest controlled study conducted at the Touch
Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida, USA
shows once again that massage therapy has an important role to play in the
alleviation of stress and stress-induced illnesses.
In the study two times every week for five weeks,
twenty-six adults were given a chair massage and twenty four adults were
asked to relax in the massage chair for 15 minutes to be used as controls.
On the first and last days of the study all of the
participants were monitored for EEG, before, during and after the sessions.
In addition, before and after the sessions they performed math computations,
they completed POMS Depression and State Anxiety Scales and they pro-vided a
saliva sample for cortisol.
At the beginning of the sessions they completed
Life Events, Job Stress and Chronic POMS Depression Scales. The results
revealed the following:
1. Frontal delta power increased for both groups,
suggesting relaxation;
2. The massage group showed de-creased frontal alpha and beta power
(suggesting enhanced alertness); while the control group showed increased
alpha and beta power;
3. The massage group showed in-creased speed and accuracy on math
computations while the control group did not change;
4 Anxiety levels were lower following the massage but not the control
sessions, although mood state was less depressed following both the massage
and control sessions;
5. Salivary cortisol levels were lower following the massage but not the
control sessions but only on the first day; and
6. At the end of the 5 week period, depression scores were lower for both
groups but job stress score were lower only for the massage group.
This small-scale study suggests that
massage
therapy offers benefits in not just alleviating the physiological effects of
anxiety, but also in improving mental alertness.
Field T; lronson G; Scafjdi
F; Nawrocki T; Goncalves A; Burman I; Pickens J; Fox N; Schanberg 5; Kuhn
C.Massage therapy reduces anxiety and enhances EEG pattern of alertness and
math computations. mi Neurosci (ENGLAND) Sep 1996,86 (3-4) p197-205.
Further reading: Massage Therapy by Adam Jackson
(published by Vermilion)
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Massage
& Pregnancy
Although
the performance of perineal massage by a woman or her partner during the
last weeks of pregnancy may help to prevent perineal trauma at delivery,
the technique has never been evaluated rigorously. This study examined the
feasibility of a randomized, controlled trial, and more specifically
assessed the participation rate, the acceptability of the intervention,
and whether or not an attending physician could remain blind to
participants' groups. The pilot study was a single-blinded, randomized,
controlled trial. Nulliparous women, 32 to 34 weeks pregnant, were
recruited from June 8 to July 31, 1992, at the offices of family
physicians and obstetricians who practice at the Hopital du Saint-Sacrement
in Quebec City. Women assigned to the intervention group practiced daily
10-minute perineal massage and completed a diary, and those in the control
group had standard care. Women and attending physicians completed a
questionnaire about the aspect of blindness. Among the 174 women who
delivered during the study period, 104 (59.8%) were approached by a
midwife and 46 (26.4%) were randomized. Twenty (91.0%) of the 22 women in
the massage group returned their perineal massage diaries. Based on the
postpartum questionnaire, 20 women practiced the technique at least four
times a week for three weeks or longer. No woman in the control group
practiced massage. The attending physician was aware of the woman's group
in only three instances (6.7%). Based on the results of this pilot study,
a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of perineal
massage in preventing perineal trauma at birth appears feasible.
Birth 1994 Mar;21(1):20-5, Labrecque M, Marcoux
S, Pinault JJ, Laroche C, Martin S
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Massage
& Premature Babies
The Explosion of narcotic and alcohol abuse in the USA has been accompanied
by a surge of premature cocaine-exposed babies who often suffer post-natal
complications and exhibit poor co-ordination and motor skills along with
increased stress behaviour during infancy. Researchers at the department of
Pediatrics at the University Miami School of Medicine studied the effects of
massage on thirty cocaine-exposed premature babies who were randomly
assigned to receive massage therapy or placed in a control group as soon as
they were considered medically stable.
The fifteen babies in the treatment group received
three 15 minute massages over a period of three consecutive hours each day
for ten days. All the babies were monitored as to weight gain, post natal
complications and motor skills and compared with the babies in the control
group.
The researchers found that the massage group showed
significant improvements over the control group. At the end of the ten day
period the babies who received massage averaged 28% greater weight gain per
day (33g as opposed to 26g in the control group) even thought the dietary
volume and calorific intakes were the same in both groups. The babies in the
massage group also showed significantly fewer post-natal complications and
stress behaviours than the control group, and they also demonstrated more
mature motor skills,
This study gives a fascinating insight into the
physiological benefits of massage therapy for premature cocaine exposed
babies. It seems that ass little as 3 fifteen minute sessions of massage
over a period of ten days can make a dramatic difference to a baby’s
development and effectively reduce the main problems associated with cocaine
exposure. The study indicates that massage therapy may have an increasingly
significant role to play in paediatric medicine.
Wheeden A; Scafidi FA; Field
T; Ironson G; Valdeon C; Bandstra E. Massage effects on cocaine-exposed
pre-term neonates. Department of paediatrics, university of Miami School of
Medicine, Florida 33101. Journal of Developmental Behavioural Pediatrics
(United Sates) Oct. 1993, 14: 5: 318-22
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Massage
& Chronic Schizophrenia
A recent German study has found that massage may play an important role
in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia. Ten chronic schizophrenics were
given massage to feet, back and neck with a view to increase their awareness
of their own body limits. The reasoning behind this was that as
schizophrenia is a problem of delimitation, and that psychic problems have
their physical embodiment, treatment of the physical level might enhance the
patients’ ability to experience their own bodily limits.
The relaxing effect of
massage therapy was indicated in clearly recorded physiological measurements
of skin conductance and heart rate, as well as the patients’
self-perceptions. The close physical presence of the therapist did not
trigger any anxiety conditions in the patients as had been feared.
Although the number of
patients who participated in the study was too small to make any firm
conclusions, the results do indicate that massage and body therapy is worthy
of consideration as a method for helping schizophrenic patients.
Andres K; Bellwald L; Brenner
HD (Empirical study of physically orientated therapy with schizophrenic
patients) Empirische unter-suchung einer leiborientierten therapie mit
schizophrenen patienten. Psychiatrische Univer-sitatsklinik Bern, Abteilung
fur Theoretische und Evaluative Psychiatrie, Ostermundigen.
Z Klin Psychol Psycopathol
Psychother (Germany) 1993, 41 (2) p159-9
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Massage
& Pain in Cancer
Evaluating the
effectiveness of nursing interventions in decreasing pain is a top priority
for clinical research. Unfortunately, most of the research on cancer pain
relief has been limited to treatment studies involving the administration of
analgesics. Research is needed to determine which nonanalgesic methods of
pain control are effective and under what conditions. Consequently, an
experimental study was designed to test the effectiveness of massage as an
intervention for cancer pain.
Twenty-eight patients were randomly assigned to a
massage or control group. The patients in the massage group were given a 10
minute massage to the back; the patients in the control group were visited
for 10 minutes. For males, there was a significant decrease in pain level
immediately after the massage. For females, there was not a significant
decrease in pain level immediately after the massage. There were no
significant differences between pain 1 hour and 2 hours after the massage in
comparison with the initial pain for males or females.
The results showed that Massage was shown to be an
effective short-term nursing intervention for pain in males in this sample.
Appl Nurs Res 1990 Nov;3(4):140-5, Weinrich SP,
Weinrich MC
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Massage
& Smoking
BACKGROUND:
Attempts at smoking cessation have been correlated with severe withdrawal
symptoms, including intense cigarette cravings, anxiety, and depressed mood.
Massage therapy has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress hormones and
improve mood.
METHOD: Twenty adult smokers (M age = 32.6) were randomly assigned to a
self-massage treatment or a control group. The treatment group was taught to
conduct a hand or ear self-massage during three cravings a day for 1 month.
RESULTS: Self-reports revealed lower anxiety scores, improved mood, and
fewer withdrawal symptoms. In addition, the self-massage group smoked fewer
cigarettes per day by the last week of the study.
CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that self-massage may be an
effective adjunct treatment for adults attempting smoking cessation to
alleviate smoking-related anxiety, reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms,
improve mood, and reduce the number of cigarettes smoked.
Hernandez-Reif M, Field
T, Hart S Touch Research Institute, University of Miami, School of Medicine,
Florida 33101, USA. Keywords: smoking - addiction - massage therapy
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Massage
therapy and stress and anxiety in children
A
study conducted at University of Miami Medical School, Florida, USA,
revealed that massage may offer considerable help for children suffering
from stress-related disorders. A 30-minute back massage was given daily for
a 5-day period to 52 children who were hospitalized as suffering from
depression and adjustment disorders. Subjective assessments were made by the
children themselves and by the nurses based upon perceived anxiety levels,
sleep patterns and the willingness of the child to be co-operative.
Objective analyses were also made by analysing stress hormone levels in the
both the urine and saliva. The results were then compared to a control group
who were shown relaxing videotapes for 30 minutes instead of massage
therapy.
The results of the study
revealed that the children receiving a 30 minute massage were less depressed
or anxious and had lower saliva cortisol levels after the massage. In
addition, nurses rated the massage group as being more co-operative on the
last day of the study, and noted that the children were sleeping better than
the children in the control group and that their night-time sleep had
increased over the 5 day period. Massage therapy also had the effect of
reducing urinary cortisol and norepinephrine levels in the children
suffering from depression which was not observed in any of the children in
the control group.
The researchers were left in
no doubt that massage therapy offers real benefits for children suffering
from stress and anxiety.
Field T; Morrow C; Valdeon C;
Larson S; Kuhn C; Schanberg S. Massage reduces anxiety in child and
adolescent psychiatric patients. Journal of the American Acadamy of Child
Adolescent Psychiatry (UNITED STATES) Jan 1992, 31 (1) p125-31
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Massage
therapy and stress management
The mind, which
before massage is in a perturbed, restless, vacillating and -even despondent
state, becomes after massage, calm, quiet, peaceful and subdued; in fact,
the wearied and worried mind has been converted into a mind restful, placid,
and refreshed.
Dr Stretch Dowse, Eminent Victorian
Physician, 1887.
Stress is a subject about which the general public
is becoming increasingly aware. It seems that every day a new study is
reported in the press or medical journals relating stress to one disease or
another. Some physicians suggest that stress may be responsible for 75 per
cent of all diseases in the Western world including skin diseases (e.g.,
psoriasis and eczema), headaches and migraine, digestive disorders, high
blood pressure and heart-related diseases, as well as back-ache and muscle
pain, poor eyesight and depression.
As the world in which we live becomes increasingly
stressful both physically and emotionally we are left with two choices;
either we avoid stress, or we learn how to deal with it effectively. It is,
of course, impossible to avoid stress, and therefore the only real solution
is to find ways to manage the stresses and strains we encounter each day.
One way is the use of massage therapy.
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Massage
& respiratory tract infection
The TCM
therapeutic principle of "eliminating the pathogenic factors by
supporting the healthy energy" was adopted in massage to treat and
prevent recurrent respiratory tract infection of children. Susceptible and
healthy children of the same age were used as controls.
As a result, the therapeutic effect of the
treatment group is significantly better than that of the controls, with all
of the immunologic indexes being approximately normal when the patients were
reexamined 3 and 6 months after the massage. Statistically, the difference
was significant. Massage has been proved very helpful in improving the
general constitution, enhancing the immune functions, preventing and
treating the condition, and in health care as well.
Zhu S, Wang N, Wang D, Wang M, Tong K, Xu
H, Wang J, Li Q, Peng J, Wang J, Jianye District TCM Hospital, Nanjing.
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Massage
& Chronic Exertional Anterior Compartment Syndrome
OBJECTIVE: To
determine the effect of massage on anterior chronic exertional compartment
syndrome (CECS) with respect to symptoms, intracompartmental pressures, and work
output of the anterior compartment in dorsiflexion.
DESIGN: One group-repeated measures design.
SETTING: A private sports medicine clinic in Melbourne, Australia.
PARTICIPANTS: Seven athletes (six men and one woman), aged between 21 and 29
years, were selected on the basis of clinical suspicion for anterior CECS.
Historical questionnaire and examination were followed by intracompartmental
pressure testing of the anterior compartment. Study exclusion criteria were
history of a bleeding diathesis and previous treatment consisting of compartment
fasciotomy or massage. All athletes completed the study.
INTERVENTIONS: A 5-week course of massage consisting of two sessions in the
first week and one session per week thereafter, for a total of six treatments.
Between each session, a twice-daily standard stretching program involving both
anterior and posterior compartments was performed.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Postexercise anterior compartment pressures (mm Hg)
before and after treatment, work output (J) in dorsiflexion to pain onset before
and after treatment, self-reported symptoms before and after treatment.
RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the 3-minute postexercise
compartment pressures after the treatment. There was a significant (p = 0.016)
increase, however, in work performed in dorsiflexion to pain onset following the
massage course.
CONCLUSIONS: Intermittent massage combined with specific stretching should be
considered in the treatment of anterior CECS.
Clin J Sport Med 1998 Jan;8(1):14-7 Blackman PG,
Simmons LR, Crossley KM Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre, Melbourne,
Australia.
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