The effect of therapeutic touch on pain and anxiety in burn patients

Abstract

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.

In Vitro Evaluation of Biofield Treatment on Cancer Biomarkers Involved in Endometrial and Prostate Cancer Cell Lines

“…Recent studies on cancer research suggest that instead of using other complementary and alternate medicine, cancer patients received highest benefit with energy medicine [15]. The concept of human bioenergy has its origin thousands of year back, till date many recent biofield therapies are in practice for their possible therapeutic potentials such as enhanced personal well-being in cancer patient [16], improved functional ability of arthritis patient [17], decreased pain and anxiety [18]. However, many other significant inhibitory effects on the cancer cell model have been published which suggest that biofield treatment could be a new and effective treatment approach for cancer [19,20].…”

Physical, Thermal and Spectroscopic Characterization of m-Toluic Acid: an Impact of Biofield Treatment

“…It generates through internal physiological processes such as blood flow, brain and heart function, etc. Nowadays, many biofield therapies are in practice for their possible therapeutic potentials such as enhanced personal well-being, improved functional ability of arthritis patient, decreased pain and anxiety [10][11][12]. The practitioners of these therapy claim that the healers channel supraphysical energy and intentionally direct this energy towards target [13].…”

Therapeutic touch affects DNA synthesis and mineralization of human osteoblasts in culture

“…6 In burn patients, TT may decrease pain perception, reduce anxiety, and enhance immune function. 7 In several review articles and meta-analyses, clinical studies involving TT appeared to demonstrate clinical effects, but many studies, when evaluated as a whole, were considered to have weak experimental design and methodological limitations, such as questions about the appropriateness of the control group, the possible involvement of psychosocial factors, too small a N, etc. [8][9][10][11] Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a need for a large standard, randomized controlled trial of TT's efficacy.…”