Does therapeutic touch ease the discomfort or distress of patients undergoing stereotactic core breast biopsy? A randomized clinical trial. Touch the pain away: new research on therapeutic touch and persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. A phase II trial of Reiki for the management of pain in advanced cancer patients. Therapeutic touch and postoperative pain: a Rogerian research study. Healing touch and quality of life in women receiving radiation treatment for cancer: a randomized controlled trial. Effects of therapeutic touch on tension headache pain. The effect of therapeutic touch on pain and anxiety in burn patients. The effects of therapeutic touch on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Pilot crossover trial of Reiki versus rest for treating cancer-related fatigue. Effects of integrating therapeutic touch into a cognitive behavioral pain treatment program. Report of a pilot clinical trial. Outcomes of touch therapies during bone marrow transplant. Therapeutic massage and healing touch improve symptoms in cancer. Therapeutic touch in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. Effects of dialogue and therapeutic touch on preoperative and postoperative experiences of breast cancer surgery: an exploratory study.
To determine whether therapeutic touch administered at the time of stereotactic core biopsy of suspicious breast lesions results in a reduction in anxiety and pain.
                Randomized, patient-blinded, controlled trial of either Krieger-Kunz therapeutic touch administered by a trained practitioner or a sham intervention mimicking therapeutic touch delivered during core biopsy.
                Stereotactic breast biopsy unit of a comprehensive breast center.
                Women with mammographically detected, nonpalpable breast lesions requiring biopsy.
                Changes in pain and anxiety measured by visual analog scales immediately before and after stereotactic core biopsy.
                A total of 82 patients were accrued: 42 received actual therapeutic touch and 40 sham therapeutic touch. No significant differences were found between the arms for age, ethnicity, educational background, or other demographic data. The sham arm had a preponderance of left breast biopsies (48% vs 58%; P = 0.07) and received a slightly higher volume of epinephrine-containing local anesthetic (6.5 +/- 6.1 vs 4.5 +/- 4.5 mL; P = 0.09). Therapeutic touch patients were more likely to have an upper breast lesion location (57% vs 53%; P = 0.022). No significant differences between the arms were seen regarding postbiopsy pain (P = 0.95), anxiety (P = 0.66), fearfulness, or physiological parameters. Similarly, no differences were seen between the arms when change in parameters from prebiopsy to postbiopsy was considered for any of the psychological or physiological variables measured. These findings persisted when confounding variables were controlled for.
                Women undergoing stereotactic core breast biopsy received no significant benefit from therapeutic touch administered during the procedure. Therapeutic touch cannot be routinely recommended for patients in this setting. 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. 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. nan 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 purpose of this single-blinded randomized clinical trial was to determine whether therapeutic touch (TT) versus sham TT could produce greater pain relief as an adjunct to narcotic analgesia, a greater reduction in anxiety, and alterations in plasma T-lymphocyte concentrations among burn patients. Therapeutic touch is an intervention in which human energies are therapeutically manipulated, a practice conceptually supported by Rogers' (1970) theory of unitary human beings. Data were collected at a university burn centre in the south-eastern United States. The subjects were 99 men and women between the ages of 15 and 68 hospitalized for severe burns, and they received either TT or sham TT once a day for 5 days. Baseline data were collected on day 1, data were collected before and after treatment on day 3, and post-intervention data were collected on day 6. Instruments included the McGill Pain Questionnaire, Visual Analogue Scales for Pain, Anxiety and Satisfaction with Therapy, and an Effectiveness of Therapy Form. Blood was drawn on days 1 and 6 for lymphocyte subset analysis. Medication usage for pain in mean morphine equivalents, and mean doses per day of sleep, anxiety and antidepressant medications were recorded. Subjects who received TT reported significantly greater reduction in pain on the McGill Pain Questionnaire Pain Rating Index and Number of Words Chosen and greater reduction in anxiety on the Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety than did those who received sham TT. Lymphocyte subset analyses on blood from 11 subjects showed a decreasing total CD8 + lymphocyte concentration for the TT group. There was no statistically significant difference between groups on medication usage. 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. Fatigue is an extremely common side effect experienced during cancer treatment and recovery. Limited research has investigated strategies stemming from complementary and alternative medicine to reduce cancer-related fatigue. This research examined the effects of Reiki, a type of energy touch therapy, on fatigue, pain, anxiety, and overall quality of life. This study was a counterbalanced crossover trial of 2 conditions: (1) in the Reiki condition, participants received Reiki for 5 consecutive daily sessions, followed by a 1-week washout monitoring period of no treatments, then 2 additional Reiki sessions, and finally 2 weeks of no treatments, and (2) in the rest condition, participants rested for approximately 1 hour each day for 5 consecutive days, followed by a 1-week washout monitoring period of no scheduled resting and an additional week of no treatments. In both conditions, participants completed questionnaires investigating cancer-related fatigue (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Fatigue subscale [FACT-F]) and overall quality of life (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy, General Version [FACT-G]) before and after all Reiki or resting sessions. They also completed a visual analog scale (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System [ESAS]) assessing daily tiredness, pain, and anxiety before and after each session of Reiki or rest. Sixteen patients (13 women) participated in the trial: 8 were randomized to each order of conditions (Reiki then rest; rest then Reiki). They were screened for fatigue on the ESAS tiredness item, and those scoring greater than 3 on the 0 to 10 scale were eligible for the study. They were diagnosed with a variety of cancers, most commonly colorectal (62.5%) cancer, and had a median age of 59 years. Fatigue on the FACT-F decreased within the Reiki condition (P=.05) over the course of all 7 treatments. In addition, participants in the Reiki condition experienced significant improvements in quality of life (FACT-G) compared to those in the resting condition (P <.05). On daily assessments (ESAS) in the Reiki condition, presession 1 versus postsession 5 scores indicated significant decreases in tiredness (P <.001), pain (P <.005), and anxiety (P<.01), which were not seen in the resting condition. Future research should further investigate the impact of Reiki using more highly controlled designs that include a sham Reiki condition and larger sample sizes. 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. 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. 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. Alternative medical therapies are widely utilized, but there are few objective data to evaluate the effectiveness of these techniques. The purpose of this study was to determine whether one alternative therapy, Therapeutic Touch (TT), can improve objective indices of median nerve function in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome.
                Participants with electrodiagnostically confirmed carpal tunnel syndrome were randomly assigned in single-blind fashion to receive either TT or sham therapeutic touch once weekly for 6 consecutive weeks. The distal latency of the median motor nerve along with visual analog assessments of pain and relaxation were measured before and after each treatment session.
                Twenty-one participants completed the study. Changes in median motor nerve distal latencies, pain scores, and relaxation scores did not differ between participants in the TT group and participants in the sham treatment group, either immediately after each treatment session or cumulatively. Immediately after each treatment session, however, there were improvements from baseline among all the outcome variables in both groups.
                In this small study, TT was no better than placebo in influencing median motor nerve distal latencies, pain scores, and relaxation scores. The changes in the outcome variables from baseline in both groups suggest a possible physiologic basis for the placebo effect. To obtain preliminary data and determine the feasibility of a large-scale experimental study to test the efficacy of the Rogerian Science of Unitary Human Beings-based intervention of dialogue and therapeutic touch (TT) on pre- and postoperative anxiety and mood and postoperative pain from breast cancer surgery.
                Experimental.
                Mid-Atlantic region; ambulatory.
                29 Caucasian and 2 African American English-speaking women with positive breast cancer biopsy (experimental, n = 14; control, n = 17), ranging in age from 31-84 years old (F = 55.6).
                Treatments administered in subjects' homes within seven days prior to surgery and 24 hours after hospital discharge. Experimental treatment consisted of 10 minutes of TT and 20 minutes of dialogue. Control treatment consisted of 10 minutes of quiet time and 20 minutes of dialogue. Data (Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Affects Balance Scale, and Visual Analog Scale-Pain) were collected at the conclusion of each home visit.
                Anxiety, mood, and pain.
                The experimental group had lower preoperative state anxiety than the control groups (p = 0.008). No difference was found for preoperative mood. No differences were found for any postoperative measure.
                A large-scale study of dialogue and TT would require changes in design and recruitment strategies.
                Nurses may provide more comprehensive care by incorporating dialogue and TT or quiet time into their pre- and postoperative care. Additional research, however, is recommended to determine the differential effects of dialogue, TT, and quiet time on women's experiences with breast cancer prior to incorporating these noninvasive modalities into clinical practice.
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.