BACKGROUND Massage is the largest complementary medicine profession in Australia, in terms of public utilisation, practitioner distribution, and number of practitioners, and is being increasingly integrated into the Australian health care system. However, despite the increasing importance of massage therapists in Australian health care delivery, or the increased practice and education obligatio...

OBJECTIVE To measure the effects of parents giving massage therapy to their children with cystic fibrosis to reduce anxiety in parents and their children and to improve the children's mood and peak air flow readings. METHODS Twenty children (5-12 years old) with cystic fibrosis and their parents were randomly assigned to a massage therapy or a reading control group. Parents in the treatment g...

Massage therapy is commonly used following endurance running races with the expectation that it will enhance post-run recovery of muscle function and reduce soreness. A limited number of studies have reported little or no influence of massage therapy on post-exercise muscle recovery. However, no studies have been conducted in a field setting to assess the potential for massage to influence musc...

BACKGROUND Clinical trial design of manual therapies may be especially challenging as techniques are often individualized and practitioner-dependent. This paper describes our methods in creating a standardized Swedish massage protocol tailored to subjects with osteoarthritis of the knee while respectful of the individualized nature of massage therapy, as well as implementation of this protocol ...

background: pain on mid sternotomy incision site after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (cabg) is a common problem that causes sleep disturbance, delayed wound healing, and increased use of analgesic drugs. massage therapy which is mostly performed by healthcare providers is a non-pharmacological approach for managing this pain. the present study aimed to determine the effect of massage the...

objective massage therapy is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicine therapies for children. this study was conducted to determine the effect of swedish massage on the muscle tonicity of children with spastic cerebral palsy (cp). materials & methods this study was a single blind clinical trial conducted on forty children with spastic cp, recruited from clinics of the ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of 5 days of massage therapy on the weight gain and sleep/wake behavior of hospitalized stable preterm infants. METHODS Massage therapy (body stroking/passive limb movement for three 15-minute periods per day) was provided to 16 preterm neonates (mean gestational age, 30.1 weeks; mean birth weight, 1359 g), and their weight gain, formula intake, kilocalories, ...

This quality improvement pilot study evaluated the effect of massage therapy on pain, anxiety, and overall well-being in women who received mastectomies at a busy hospital practice. Participants reported a significant reduction in pain, stress, and muscle tension, as well as an increase in relaxation. Oncology nurses should consider the feasibility of massage therapy as a valuable nonpharmcolog...

Background: Neonatal jaundice is a common condition in approximately 60% of term newborns during the first week after birth. Therefore, it is necessary to detect methods for the prevention of this problem.This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of massage therapy on transcutaneous bilirubin level in healthy term newborns. Methods: The present study was conducted on102 healthy term newbo...