Massage from a trained massage therapist gave pain relief and raised moods for dying cancer patients immediately after each treatment. However, the effects didn’t last over time.
Researchers compared the effects of simple touch to therapeutic massage for 380 patients in a hospice program. Randomly, some patients received up to six 30-minutes massages over a three week period. Other patients were simply touched briefly in ten different places on their body over three minutes.
Both groups experienced pain relief right after the massage or simple touch treatment. However, massage was more effective in relieving pain, reducing it about an average 2 points on a 10 point scale. Touch reduced pain an average 1 point.
Mood improved for massage patients by about one and a half points, compared to one point for simple touch.
However, questionnaires showed no sustained improvement in quality of life or the distress patients felt from their symptoms over time. Neither group used less pain medicine.
Jean S. Kutner M.D. and her team concluded,
Massage may have immediately beneficial effects on pain and mood among patients with advanced cancer. Given the lack of sustained effects and the observed improvements in both study groups, the potential benefits of attention and simple touch should also be considered in this patient population.
Some funding for the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health and National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
SOURCE: Kutner et al., Annals of Internal Medicine, Volume 149. Issue 6, September 16, 2008.
Leave a Reply
Your comments are welcome. However, specific medical advice will not be provided. Generic QUESTIONS can be directed to our Answer Line team at http://fightcolorectalcancer.org/awareness/answer-line or by calling us at 1-877-427-2111 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern time, Monday – Friday. We urge you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions. Fight Colorectal Cancer is not responsible for the medical accuracy of any comments left by persons other than Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members. Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members monitor comments and may respond publicly where appropriate.
Please note that we automatically publish the name that you enter next to your post. Also note that our pages are automatically indexed by Google and other search engines, and your name may therefore appear in search results on those sites. So if you wish to remain anonymous please use a different name or enter 'Anon' as the name.
We regret that we are unable to privately answer questions left as comments. So please do not include your phone number, email or mailing address in the body of your comment.