Does reiki complement pain control in fibromyalgia?
More than 50 major hospitals and clinics throughout the United States offer energy healing to patients
This study by researchers from the University of Washington concluded, “Neither reiki nor touch improved the symptoms of fibromyalgia.”
First, the details.
100 adults with fibromyalgia were randomly assigned to a treatment group.
Reiki by a reiki master
Sham reiki by an actor
Direct touch
No touch (distant therapy)
Treatment was twice-weekly for 8 weeks.
The researchers looked for changes in subjective pain as measured by visual analog scale during, at the end of the study, and 3 months later.
The researchers were not aware of the treatment given — single-blinded.
And, the results.
Neither reiki nor touch had any effect on pain.
There were also no changes in physical and mental functioning, medication use, and health provider visits.
The responses among the 4 treatment groups during the study were nearly identical.
The bottom line?
A website called Fibromyalgia Symptoms advances reiki as a “holistic treatment that plays an effective role in fibromyalgia treatment and in helping to alleviate many fibromyalgia symptoms.” And the researchers tell us that 55% of patients with fibromyalgia have used energy medicine such as reiki, therapeutic touch, qigong, and magnet therapy.
I searched back to 2005 and this is the only placebo-controlled study of reiki in fibromyalgia.
Considering the few options available and its safety, people with fibromyalgia who experience relief from touch therapy should be encouraged as long as they don’t forgo accompanying treatments.
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2 comments:
I am writing to you from the Pacific Northwest Foundation about a case study that may be of interest to your research into fibromyalgia. While this was not a study undertaken by the Foundation, it was a case with which we have had access to in virtually every detail. This includes the chart notes (with the patient's approval) as well as the observations and insights of the patient's health care provider.
The case involves an adult female who had been disabled for eight years with diagnosed fibromyalgia. Within four months of treatment, she was able to backpack, regularly work a full day and have little or no pain.
As with all our studies, it is our hope to stimulate additional efforts to determine if these results were an aberration or have wider implications. To this end, we wanted to make you aware of the cast study (which can be found online at http://pnf.org/html/fibromyalgia.html), in the hope that it might prove useful as a starting point for research within your organization.
Thanks and kind regards,
Frank Cook
Pacific Northwest Foundation
Informative blog.Thank You..
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