Therapeutic touch in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. (1/27)

BACKGROUND: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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.  (+info)

Therapeutic effects of massage therapy and handling touch on caregivers of patients undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant. (2/27)

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To examine the effect of massage therapy and Healing Touch on anxiety, depression, subjective caregiver burden, and fatigue experienced by caregivers of patients undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental repeated measures. SETTING: Oncology/hematology outpatient clinic in a large midwestern city. SAMPLE: 36 caregivers: 13 in the control group, 13 in the massage therapy group, and 10 in the Healing Touch group. Average age was 51.5 years; most participants were Caucasian. METHODS: All caregivers completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Subjective Burden Scale, and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory-20 before and after treatment consisting of two 30-minute massages or Healing Touch treatments per week for three weeks. Caregivers in the control group received usual nursing care and a 10-minute supportive visit from one of the researchers. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Anxiety, depression, subjective burden, fatigue, Healing Touch, massage therapy. FINDINGS: Results showed significant declines in anxiety scores, depression, general fatigue, reduced motivation fatigue, and emotional fatigue for individuals in the massage therapy group only. In the Healing Touch group, anxiety and depression scores decreased, and fatigue and subjective burden increased, but these changes did not achieve statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers can benefit from massage therapy in the clinic setting. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Oncology nurses care for both patients and their caregivers. Although some transplant programs provide services to support lay caregivers, studies indicate that these individuals continue to feel stressed by their situation. Massage might be one intervention that can be used by nurses to decrease feelings of stress in patients' caregivers.  (+info)

Effects of light fingertip touch on postural responses in subjects with diabetic neuropathy. (3/27)

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the potential benefits from lightly touching an external supporting device on automatic postural responses to support surface translations, in subjects with profound sensory neuropathy in the feet due to diabetes mellitus (DM-PN). METHODS: Eight subjects with DM-PN and 10 age matched controls were tested under randomly ordered conditions of no fingertip touch (NT), light touch (LT; <1 N), and heavy touch (HT, as needed) of a stationary touch plate, during three backward translation velocities of the support surface at 10, 20, and 30 cm/s. Dependent variables included response latencies, CoP velocity, and the slope of the relation between centre of pressure (CoP) velocity and translation velocity as a measure of response scaling. RESULTS: Postural response latencies were significantly longer and scaling of initial response magnitude in proportion to translation velocity was significantly smaller in the DM-PN subjects compared to the control subjects. LT had no significant effect on response latencies of the DM-PN patients. Fingertip touch increased the slope of the scaling of postural response magnitude in both groups. However, DM-PN subjects had to use HT to improve response scaling, whereas control subjects improved scaling with LT as well as HT. LT significantly increased rightward CoP velocity towards the touch plate in all subjects. CONCLUSIONS: LT did not reduce the latency or improve the scaling of automatic postural responses in subjects with peripheral neuropathy. The major effect of LT on the automatic postural responses of the DM-PN subjects was in increasing CoP velocity towards the side of the supporting device. HT in neuropathy subjects and LT in age matched control subjects increased the sensitivity of initial postural response scaling, suggesting that somatosensory substitution from a cane in the hand could be used to improve the magnitude of medium latency postural responses to slips and trips.  (+info)

Changes in the isoprenoid pathway with transcendental meditation and Reiki healing practices in seizure disorder. (4/27)

A quantal perceptive model of brain function has been postulated by several groups. Reiki-like healing practices in seizure disorder (ILAE classification-II E-generalized seizures-tonic clonic), involving transfer of life force or low level of electromagnetic force (EMF) from the healer to the recipient patient, may act via quantal perceptive mechanisms. Increased synthesis of an endogenous membrane Na+-K+ ATPase inhibitor digoxin and a related tyrosine / tryptophan transport defect has been demonstrated in refractory seizure disorder (ILAE classification-II E-generalized seizures-tonic clonic). Reiki-like healing practices in refractory epilepsy results in a reduction in seizure frequency. Reiki-like healing practices produce membrane stabilization and stimulation of membrane Na+-K+ ATPase activity by quantal perception of low levels of EMF. The consequent intracellular hypermagnesemia inhibits HMG CoA reductase activity and digoxin synthesis resulting in the alteration of the neutral amino acid transport (tryptophan / tyrosine) defect. A hypothalamic digoxin-mediated quantal perception model of brain function is proposed. The phenomena of biological transmutation and consequent hypermagnesemia occurring in the resultant neuronal quantal state is also discussed.  (+info)

Clinical holistic medicine: classic art of healing or the therapeutic touch. (5/27)

Touching is often a forgotten part of medicine. The manual medicine or therapeutic touch (TT) is much more powerful than many modern, biomedically oriented physicians think. Pain and discomfort can be alleviated just by touching the sick area and in this way help the patient to be in better contact with the tissue and organs of their body. Lack of presence in the body seems to be connected with many symptoms that can be readily reversed simply by sensitive touch. When touch is combined with therapeutic work on mind and feelings, holistic healing seems to be facilitated and many problems can be solved in a direct and easy way in the clinic without drugs. This paper gives examples of the strength of manual medicine or therapeutic touch in its most simple form, and points to the power of physical contact between physician and his patient in the context of the theory and practice of holistic healing. Intimacy seems highly beneficial for the process of healing and it is very important to distinguish clearly between intimacy and sexuality for the physician and his patent to be able to give and receive touch without fear and without holding back emotionally.  (+info)

Effect of stimulation in coma. (6/27)

OBJECTIVE: To find out efficacy and benefits of early starting of stimulation therapy in coma patients. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. METHOD: Sixty children admitted to the Department of Pediatrics, having coma due to non-traumatic neurological insult were randomly selected. Both study and control groups had 30 patients each. Children in the study group were given stimulation therapy while those in control group received no stimulation. The level of consciousness was assessed before and two weeks after giving stimulation therapy. RESULTS: Improvement in level of consciousness was better in study group as compared to control after two weeks of stimulation therapy. CONCLUSION: Stimulation therapy was found to be highly effective in coma patients.  (+info)

Efficacy of complementary and alternative medicine therapies in relieving cancer pain: a systematic review. (7/27)

PURPOSE: Despite widespread popular use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, a rigorous evidence base about their efficacy for cancer-related pain is lacking. This is a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating CAM therapies for cancer-related pain. METHODS: RCTs using CAM interventions for cancer-related pain were abstracted using Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, and Cochrane database. RESULTS: Eighteen trials were identified (eight poor, three intermediate, and seven high quality based on Jadad score), with a total of 1,499 patients. Median sample size was 53 patients, and median intervention duration was 45 days. All studies were from single institutions, four had sample size justification, and none reported any adverse effects. Seven trials reported significant benefit for the following CAM therapies: acupuncture (n = 1), support groups (n = 2), hypnosis (n = 1), relaxation/imagery (n = 2), and herbal supplement/HESA-A (n = 1, but study was of low quality without control data). Seven studies reported immediate postintervention or short-term benefit of the following CAM interventions: acupuncture (n = 2), music (n = 1), herbal supplement/Ai-Tong-Ping (n = 1), massage (n = 1), and healing touch (n = 2). Four studies reported no benefit of CAM interventions (music, n = 2; massage, n = 2) in reducing cancer pain compared with a control arm. CONCLUSION: There is paucity of multi-institutional RCTs evaluating CAM interventions for cancer pain with adequate power, duration, and sham control. Hypnosis, imagery, support groups, acupuncture, and healing touch seem promising, particularly in the short term, but none can be recommended because of a paucity of rigorous trials. Future research should focus on methodologically strong RCTs to determine potential efficacy of these CAM interventions.  (+info)

From healing the whole person: an argument for therapeutic touch as a complement to traditional medical practice. (8/27)

The growing popularity and use of therapeutic touch (TT) is an issue that has generated controversy and concern within the medical community. While anecdotal and traditional scientific evidence suggest that TT would be an advantageous addition for clinics and hospitals to include in their armamentarium of complementary interventions within the realm of traditional medicine, TT has not become widely available in the U.S. One reason for the lack of availability may be the dearth of conclusive scientific support for TT's efficacy and, therefore, its inclusion in clinic and hospital treatment planning would give it the appearance of legitimate practice, which it may not yet deserve. Whether or not deserved, if TT were added to hospital and clinic treatment protocols without substantial scientific support, it would be thought to have the implicit support of the scientific community, at which point the question of its efficacy would be moot in the minds of many people; thus patients would utilize it, because they believe it works rather than because it works. Since TT has not yet been scientifically proven as per Western standards, leaders of the health care community are likely wary of lending support to TT at this time. If TT can be found to be a scientifically sound therapeutic technique, then it will be more readily accepted in the health care community. This paper reviews TT.  (+info)