The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point

Archive for the 'Therapeutic Touch' Category

Results of nonpharmacological approaches to treating pain

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

Researchers at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, in Chicago evaluated the effectiveness of an inpatient integrative medicine consult service for pain management. (more…)

Biofield Therapies: Helpful or Full of Hype?

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Therapeutic Touch 2Researchers from the UCLA Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, Los Angeles, California think Reiki, therapeutic touch, and healing touch warrant further research. (more…)

Non-drug treatments for dementia

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Dementia_eResearchers from the University of Leeds, in the UK reviewed the options for caregivers of patients with dementia. (more…)

Supportive care for chronic fatigue syndrome

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Medscape has published a review written by clinicians from around the US.

Let’s focus on 6 supportive care options for chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, aka chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and myalgic encephalomyelitis. (more…)

Distinguishing between reiki and therapeutic touch

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Actually, it’s not that easy to do.

Several years ago, Dr. Pamela Potter was supervising Reiki volunteers at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut as a doctoral candidate in the School of Nursing.

She’s qualified, if anyone is, to distinguish between these two disciplines.

(more…)

More US hospitals offering CAM

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

A survey of more than 6000 US hospitals by the American Hospital Association reveals that among 1400 responders, the percentage of hospitals offering at least one CAM service increased from 8% in 1998 to 27% in 2005. (more…)

Healing touch: 31 unsuccessful studies and counting

Saturday, February 2nd, 2008

A few years ago, a review of 30 studies of healing touch concluded, “no generalizable results were found.” In plain English that means there was no disease nor any group of patients with a disease where healing touch was a reliable treatment alternative.

A new study of healing touch in 12 veterans with neuropathic pain and the associated psychological distress from post spinal cord injury comes to the same conclusion.

(more…)

The value of CAM for pain relief during labor

Friday, February 1st, 2008

Professor Michel Tournaire and Dr. Anne Theau-Yonneau have reviewed the literature.

Few publications report a statistically significant reduction in labor pain? Here’s what we know about pain relief and other outcomes. I’ll summarize the more familiar options. (more…)