Safety, elements, and effects of healing touch on chronic non-malignant abdominal pain

This experimental study examined the safety, elements, and effects of Healing Touch (HT). Recipients had abdominal surgery at least four weeks prior to admission to the study and had excessive pain at the operative site. Each received three separate thirty minute treatments: HT given by an experienced HT provider, HT given by a naive provider (the sham treatment), and an interview. Treatments were at least 24 hours apart and their order was selected randomly. HT and sham treatments combined two HT interventions, magnetic unruffling and wound sealing. The interview was the placebo control and the sham, technique control. Quantitative changes in perceived pain before and after treatments were measured by the McGill-Melzack Pain Questionnaire (MPQ). Qualitative data about providers' and recipients' experiences were obtained. All three treatments were found to be safe for recipients and providers, but sham providers had more discomfort than HT providers. Recipients experienced more nausea, headaches, dizziness, and drowsiness after HT than after sham. Quantitative data indicated that HT and sham were followed by equal pain relief, qualitative data that HT was followed by more total pain relief and relaxation than sham. The interview was followed by less pain relief than HT or sham, indicating that HT is not simply related to the nurse's presence and attention. The differences between quantitative and qualitative results suggest that recipients may evaluate their pain using criteria other than just pain sensation. The primary conclusion is that HT given by a naive provider is followed by essentially the same pain relief as that given by an experienced practitioner. While it is tempting to conclude that the hand motions, alone, contributed to recipient's pain relief, other factors may have been involved. Such factors include a possible complex placebo effect of ritual and expectations, the recipient's opportunity to rest, being gently touched, some other unidentified influence, or a combination of elements. No conclusion is possible about the effect of providers' states of consciousness on recipients' pain relief. Provider and recipient experiences during treatments were unusual and varied. Implications and recommendations for nursing care and research are included.