Massage Therapy and Infant Development
In 1986, Tiffany Field conducted a study on the effects of massage on premature babies. She had nurses massage a group of preemies for fifteen minutes, three times a day, for ten days. The results were astounding. Massaged babies gained forty-seven percent more weight than expected and were able to go home almost a full week earlier han babies who didn't get massaged. Dr. Field also discovered that when healthy full-term babies were massaged for fifteen minutes a day, they cried less, were more alert and socially engaged, gained weight faster, and had lower levels of stress hormones.
- Study published in The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D.
Massage Increases Alertness and Accuracy at Work
Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida, USA
Twenty-six adults were given a chair massage and 24 control group adults were asked to relax in the massage chair for 15 minutes, two times per week for five weeks. On the first and last days of the study they were monitored for EEG, before, during, and after the sessions. In addition, before and after the sessions they performed math computations, they completed POMS Depression and Staty Anxiety Scales and they provided a saliva sample for cortisol. At the beginning of the sessions they completed Life Events, Job Stress and Chronic POMS Depression Scales.
Group by repeated measures and post hoc analyses revealed the following:
1) Frontal delta power increased for both groups, suggesting relaxation
2) The massage group showed decreased frontal alpha and beta power (suggesting enhanced alertness); while the control group showed increased alpha and beta power
3) The massage group showed increased speed and accuracy on math computations while the control group did not change
4) Anxiety levels were lower following the massage but not the control sessions, although mood state was less depressed following both the massage and control sessions
5) Salivary cortisol levels were lower following the massage but not the control sessions but only on the first day
6) At the end of the 5 week period depression scores were lower for both groups but job stress score were lower only for the massage group.
PMID:8884390
Pregnant Women Benefit from Massage Therapy
Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida, USA
Twenty-six pregnant women were assigned to a massage therapy or a relaxation therapy group for 5 weeks. The therapies consisted of 20-minute sessions twice a week. Both groups reported feeling less anxious after the first session and less leg pain after the first and last session. Only the massage therapy group, however, reported reduced anxiety, improved mood, better sleep and less back pain by the last day of the study. In addition, urinary stress hormone levels (norepinephrine) decreased for the massage therapy group and the women had fewer complications during labor and their infants had fewer postnatal complications (e.g., less prematurity).
PMID:10212885
Massage Therapy Reduces Pain in Pregnant Women, Alleviates Prenatal Depression in Both Parents and Improves Their Relationships.
Touch Research Institute, University of Miami Medical School, Miami, FL, USA
Prenatally depressed women were randomly assigned to a group that received massage twice weekly from their partners from 20 weeks gestation until the end of pregnancy or a control group. Self-reported leg pain, back pain, depression, anxiety and anger decreased more for the massaged pregnant women than for the control group women. In addition, the partners who massaged the pregnant women versus the control group partners reported less depressed mood, anxiety and anger across the course of the massage therapy period. Finally, scores on a relationship questionnaire improved more for both the women and the partners in the massage group. These data suggest that not only mood states but also relationships improve mutually when depressed pregnant women are massaged by their partners.
PMID:19083666
Burn Patients Benefit from Massage Therapy
Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida, USA
Twenty patients with burn injuries were randomly assigned to a massage therapy or a standard treatment control group during the remodeling phase of wound healing. The massage therapy group received a 30-minute massage with cocoa butter to a closed, moderate-sized scar tissue area twice a week for 5 weeks. The massage therapy group reported reduced itching, pain, and anxiety and improved mood immediately after the first and last therapy sessions, and their ratings on these measures improved from the first day to the last day of study.
PMID:10850898
To review these studies and many more like them please visit www.pubmed.gov.
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