Rexilus, S. J., Mundt, C.A., Erickson, M. & Sangeeta, A. (2002). Therapeutic effects of massage healing touch on caregivers of patients undergoing autologous hematopoietc Stem cell transplant. Oncology Nursing Forum, 29(3). Article available: www.ons.org.
The purpose of this research was to determine if massage therapy and therapeutic touch decreased anxiety, depression, subjective caregiver burden and fatigue in a sample of caregivers who were working with patients undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The theoretical underpinnings of this research were rooted in an extensive review of the current literature which covered literature related to: the psychoemotional toll of caregiving, the effects of educating caregivers in methods that help them cope, and the general effects of both massage therapy and therapeutic touch. The review noted that no studies had examined how therapeutic touch and message therapy affected caregivers. Thus such research was shown to be needed.
The study used a quasi-experimental, repeated measures design on 36 caregivers of HSCT patients, 13 of which were assigned to the massage therapy group, 10 of which were assigned to the therapeutic touch group, and 13 of which were served as controls. All l caregivers completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Subjective Burden Scale, and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory-20 both before and after treatment consisting of two 30-minute massages or Healing Touch treatments per week for three weeks. Caregivers in the control group received usual nursing care and a 10-minute supportive visit from one of the researchers. The findings of the study showed significant decreases in anxiety, depression, fatigue for the massage therapy group only. Findings were mixed for therapeutic touch.
This research is significant to nursing because nurses often must care not only for
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