Therapeutic Touch for Psychological Disorders - Therapeutic Touch for Mental Health Problems

Potential Dangers

Therapeutic touch is believed to be safe in most individuals and does not involve direct physical contact between practitioner and patient. Therapeutic touch should not be used for severe conditions in place of therapies with proven efficacy. There are anecdotal reports of restlessness, anxiety, dizziness, nausea and irritability with therapeutic touch. There is a published case of tension headache and a case of crying associated with therapeutic touch.

Some practitioners believe that therapeutic touch should not be practiced on people during the initial period of a fever or inflammation, and should not be administered to areas of the body with cancer. It is sometimes recommended that treatment sessions for children be shorter than for adults. Also, if the practitioner is emotionally upset, there may be a risk that this emotional upset will transfer from the practitioner to the patient.

Summary

There are few well-designed clinical trials of therapeutic touch. Therapeutic touch remains controversial, and research has not identified a mechanism of action that fits into standard Western models of medicine. There are some treatment areas, such as anxiety and pain, for which there is promising early research. However, there is also some negative evidence, including one study in which blindfolded therapeutic touch practitioners could not sense when they were close to another person's energy field. Better-quality research is needed, because therapeutic touch remains widely used.

The information in this monograph was prepared by the professional staff at Natural Standard, based on thorough systematic review of scientific evidence. The material was reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School with final editing approved by Natural Standard.

Resources

1. Natural Standard: An organization that produces scientifically based reviews of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) topics
2. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM): A division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services dedicated to research

Selected Scientific Studies: Therapeutic Touch

Natural Standard reviewed more than 370 articles to prepare the professional monograph from which this version was created.

Some of the more recent studies are listed below:

1. Astin JA, Harkness E, Ernst E. The efficacy of "distant healing": a systematic review of randomized trials. Ann Intern Med 2000;132(11):903-910.
2. Blankfield RP, Sulzmann C, Fradley LG, et al. Therapeutic touch in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. J Am Board Fam Pract 2001;14(5):335-342.
3. Denison B. Touch the pain away: new research on therapeutic touch and persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. Holist Nurs Pract 2004;18(3):142-151.
4. Eckes Peck SD. The effectiveness of therapeutic touch for decreasing pain in elders with degenerative arthritis. J Holist Nurs 1997;15(2):176-198.
5. Giasson M, Bouchard L. Effect of therapeutic touch on the well-being of persons with terminal cancer. J Holist Nurs 1998;16(3):383-398.
6. Gordon A, Merenstein JH, D'Amico F, et al. The effects of therapeutic touch on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. J Fam Pract 1998;47(4):271-277.
7. Ireland M. Therapeutic touch with HIV-infected children: a pilot study. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care 1998;9(4):68-77.
8. Lafreniere KD, Mutus B, Cameron S, et al. Effects of therapeutic touch on biochemical and mood indicators in women. J Alt Comp Med 1999;5(4):367-370.
9. Larden CN, Palmer ML, Janssen P. Efficacy of therapeutic touch in treating pregnant inpatients who have a chemical dependency. J Holist Nurs 2004;22(4):320-332.
10. Lin Y-S, Taylor AG. Effects of therapeutic touch in reducing pain and anxiety in an elderly population. Integ Med 1998;1(4):155-162.
11. McElligott D, Holz MB, Carollo L, et al. A pilot feasibility study of the effects of touch therapy on nurses. J N Y State Nurses Assoc 2003;34(1):16-24.
12. Olson M, Sneed N, LaVia M, et al. Stress-induced immunosuppression and therapeutic touch. Altern Ther Health Med 1997;3(2):68-74. P
13. eters RM. The effectiveness of therapeutic touch: a meta-analytic review. Nurs Sci Quart 1999;12(1):52-61.
14. Post-White J, Kinney ME, Savik K, et al. Therapeutic massage and healing touch improve symptoms in cancer. Integr Cancer Ther 2003;2(4):332-344.
15. Richards K, Nagel C, Markie M, et al. Use of complementary and alternative therapies to promote sleep in critically ill patients. Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am 2003;15(3):329-340.
16. Rosa L, Rosa E, Sarner L, et al. A close look at therapeutic touch. JAMA 1998;279(13):1005-1010.
17. Samarel N, Fawcett J, Davis MM, et al. Effects of dialogue and therapeutic touch on preoperative and postoperative experiences of breast cancer surgery: an exploratory study. Oncol Nurs Forum 1998;25(8):1369-1376.
18. Smith DW, Arnstein P, Rosa KC, Wells-Federman C. Effects of integrating therapeutic touch into a cognitive behavioral pain treatment program: report of a pilot clinical trial. J Holist Nurs 2002;Dec, 20(4):367-387.
19. Smith MC, Reeder F, Daniel L, et al. Outcomes of touch therapies during bone marrow transplant. Altern Ther Health Med 2003;Jan-Feb, 9(1):40-49.
20. Turner JG, Clark AJ, Gauthier DK, et al. The effect of therapeutic touch on pain and anxiety in burn patients. J Adv Nurs 1998;28(1):10-20.
21. Weze C, Leathard HL, Grange J, et al. Evaluation of healing by gentle touch in 35 clients with cancer. Eur J Oncol Nurs 2004;8(1):40-49.
22. Winstead-Fry P, Kijek J. An integrative review and meta-analysis of therapeutic touch research. Alt Ther Health Med 1999;5(6):58-67.
23. Wirth DP, Cram JR, Chang RJ. Multisite electromyographic analysis of therapeutic touch and qigong therapy. J Alt Comp Med 1997;3(2):109-118.
24. Woods DL, Craven RF, Whitney J. The effect of therapeutic touch on behavioral symptoms of persons with dementia. Altern Ther Health Med 2005;11(1):66-74.
25. Woods DL, Whitney J. The effect of therapeutic touch on disruptive behaviours of individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer type. Alt Ther Health Med 1996;2(4):95-96.
26. Woods DL, Dimond M. The effect of therapeutic touch on agitated behavior and cortisol in persons with Alzheimer's disease. Biol Res Nurs 2002;Oct, 4(2):104-114.