Literature Review on "Outcomes of Therapeutic Touch"

Literature Review 9 pages (2455 words) Sources: 8 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Therapeutic Touch

HEALING, COMFORTING HANDS?

Therapeutic touch or TT is an unconventional and alternative treatment of disease and accompanying pain and discomfort popularized in 1972 by a psychic healer and her nurse assistant. It involves the manipulation of the patient's energy field by the practitioner. It is also practiced as therapeutic massage. Although rejected by traditional mainstream medicine as having unclear and inconclusive outcomes, this form of therapy has demonstrated to be useful and effective in the control of pain and discomfort, especially among dying patients in hospices, terminally ill cancer patients, and children.

Therapeutic touch is a non-conventional, non-invasive method of healing, which involves the manipulation of a patient's energy field by the practitioner in order to effect healing or comfort

. The practitioner transfers her own energy to the patient by the laying of hands. This technique was developed in 1972 by Dora Kunz, a psychic healer, and Dolores Krieger, a nurse and nursing profession. By 1998 alone, about 100,000 had trained in therapeutic touch or TT and about 43,000 of them were health professionals. They have used TT in combination with traditional methods of treatment.

The purpose of this study is to determine the outcomes of this method, especially in controlling pain and discomfort among hospice patients. Current scientific evidence is generally inconclusive on its effectiveness.

Body

Dr. Krieger first discovered the use of TT when she worked at a registered nurse in a hospital.

She was working as a registered nurse in a hospital in 1971 when she applied her knowledge of laying of hands on a dying female patient as a last resort. The patient improved and lived. She and Kunz cooperated with Oskar Estabany, a world-renowned healer, in studying the effects of TT. Dr. Krieger learned that prana is transferred from the healer to the patient during TT. It was initially taught to health professionals to complement both traditional and alternative therapies. These include osteopathic, chiropractic, naturopathic and homeopathic therapies. TT is now also taught in hundreds of colleges, universities, and medical schools.

TT has demonstrated benefits in relaxation, pain reduction, hastening healing and improvement of psychosomatic symptoms.

TT seems to raise hemoglobin blood values, induce relaxation by affecting brain waves and enhance the immune system in hastening the healing of wounds. It seems to affect especially the autonomic nervous system, lymphatic and circulatory systems and the musculoskeletal system. Nurses use it in operating rooms and recovery rooms. It is also used as part of the treatment of terminally ill patients, like those with cancer or AIDS, to control anxiety and stress, induce peace of mind and ease pain.

Every TT session takes about 20-30 minutes.

Only the energy body of the patient is manipulated and he need not remove his clothes or take a particular position. TT consists of five steps. The first is quiet meditation by the practitioner. Second is his or her assessment of the patient's energy field. Third, the practitioner clears away blockages from the energy field to heal the patient. This is called unruffling, which is done from head to the feet. Fourth, the practitioner channels healthy energy to the diseased but cleared parts of the patient's energy body from her own and from the universal source of health and life. And fifth is balancing the energy body.

Clash with Western Medical Science

The increase in popularity of holistic medicines and treatments pushed the demand for their services in hospitals.

Many members of the Western medical community, however, perceive these therapies as competitive rather than merely supplementary, as hospitals say they are. This sense of competition and the lack of accepted experimental data in holistic methods produce hostile attitudes in traditional doctors and other medical practitioners. Despite this resistance and the bias shown by these mainstream doctors and medical practitioners, holistic medicine continued and even gained more sympathizers, especially nurses. One proof is the research grant awarded by the U.S. National Institute of Health for the study of TT in 1994.

TT claims that it can cure ailments, which neither the therapist nor the patient may be consciously aware of.

This means that the practitioner need not undergo diagnostic training or may be learned outside the traditional professional health care environment. TT also claims to cure any particular ailment, including emotional ones. Furthermore, it claims to transmit healing energy even in great distances and send positive energy to the world to reduce hostility and violence. Although unbelievable, a 1976 study found a statistically significant decrease in the rates of crime, accidents and illness in a particular region where at least 1% of the population practiced holistic therapy activities.

Pain and Hospice Massage

Pain is basically physical but has other dimensions. Physical or physiological pain is an unpleasant sensation in the body, which is accompanied or followed by signs and symptoms.

It may be behavioral if it affects a person's level of activity. It may be emotional if pain affects the feeling or mood. If the pain affects thought and perception, it is cognitive pain. If it changes relationships, it is social pain. And it is spiritual pain if it affects one's sense of meaning and purpose in life.

The American Massage Therapy Association defines massage as a "manual soft tissue manipulation" performed to positively enhance health and well-being.

The concept and technique of massage have shown to be an effective non-pharmacological tool in reducing discomforts of pain. It is thus used as a complementary approach in tending to elderly and terminally ill hospice patients in order to sustain or improve the quality of life. Massage reduces the physical experience of pain by stimulating sensory receptors and suppressing pain sensation. It also stimulates the production of natural painkillers, called endorphins. It likewise decreases the production of the stress hormone, cortisol, by the adrenal glands during periods of prolonged stress. The quality of sleep is improved when cortisol levels are lower.

When physical pain and discomfort are eased, the person is better able to care for himself and perform his daily tasks at a higher level of functionality.

Massage appears to increase the level of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurochemical, which regulates the mood and the sense of calmness and controls anxiety and irritability. When pain and discomfort are eliminated or reduced, the person develops more positive thought patterns than the one he held on to when in pain. His relationship with his caregiver also improves when pain and discomfort are relieved. And spiritually, relief allows the sufferer to feel a greater desire to participate in life than when in pain. Sufficient evidence substantiates the psychosocial and physical benefits of massage. It improves both verbal and non-verbal communication, especially with the dying person who must fight a sense of isolation and loneliness. At the same time, the touch of another person transmits an acknowledgment of his worth, regardless of his body or mind condition. This is why massage therapy or TT is widely offered by hospice organizations as a complementary service.

Unclear and Inconclusive Outcomes

A meta-analytic review of 36 research reports between 1986 and 1996 revealed unclear and inconclusive results from the use of TT.

The studies could not make substantial claims because of under-reporting of data, unclear convenience sampling, a lack of description of actual interventions, and the relationship of the expertise to the outcomes of treatment. A Natural Standard collaborative review organization on third review found that most studies were not well-designed despite the control of pain achieved; unclear anxiety reduction because of conflicting results; the need for further research regarding the reduction of anxiety in children; unclear wound healing effects because of conflicting results; more study needed on the effects on Alzheimer's dementia and relief of headache; and the lack of effect of TT on blood sugar levels in type 1 diabetes.

A Holistic Approach to Pain Management for Hospice Patients

The management of pain and discomfort is central to hospices where focus shifts from curative to palliative for patients nearing their end.

Lab tests and invasive procedures become inappropriate in this setting. Hospices them work to manage pain and discomfort with the patient, the family, and caregivers through various angles. These are physical pain assessment, interpretation of non-verbal cues from patients, treatment of non-physical symptoms, and non-pharmacological interventions, which include massage.

Massage is a particularly helpful tool and part of pain management in hospices in that it can provide the comfort and relaxation to patients at the end-of-life period.

It is a time of great anxiety, sorrow and fear for them and their families. The aim of palliative care is precisely to provide comfort and support for them. Massage is directed at easing the transition, which will be most comfortable to them. Available data state that many patients at this stage respond positively to this treatment in the form of reduced emotional distress, anxiety, physical discomfort, pain and nausea. The dearth of formal records is made up for by informal testimonies of practitioners that massage or TT increases relaxation and the level of physical… READ MORE

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