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Although massage and meditation were independently
associated with increased quality of care scores, the
combination of meditation and massage had the greatest
increase in quality of life measures. This raises questions
about the relative value of using individual versus combined
modalities for helping people at the end of life. The
study clearly needs to be repeated with a larger sample
of people and could also be explored with people dealing
with other late-stage and life-threatening conditions.
The second small study worthy of mention was conducted
by S. S. Meek in 1993 and used a quasi-experimental
design, where the participants were not
randomly selected, to assess the impact of slow stroke
back massage (SSBM) on systolic and diastolic blood
pressure, heart rate and skin temperature on 30 adults
from two hospice home-care programs.7 SSBM is a slow,
rhythmic stroking with the hands at a rate of 60 strokes
a minute on two-inch wide areas on both sides of the
spinous processes from the crown of the head to the
sacral area, lasting for three minutes. The study results
showed a significant decrease in the subjects’ systolic
and diastolic blood pressure and an increase in their
skin temperature. These changes lasted for at least a
five-minute follow-up period, and were consistent with
the conclusion that the subjects were more relaxed after
receiving SSBM than they had been before it.
These study results suggest the need for further research
using a larger sample of adults in hospice care
and a longer follow-up period for assessing the impact
of SSBM. In addition, we need to know if other types of
massage that involve more time, larger areas of the body
and/or in combination with other modalities, such as
compassionate touch, meditation, reiki or therapeutic
touch have a similar impact on blood pressure and skin
temperature and on other measures of interest including
quality of life, anxiety, and depression.
Conclusion
Although there is limited research at this time to substantiate
the benefits of massage for helping people at
the end of life, the research that does exist suggests potential
value of massage for bringing comfort to people
at this critical time of transition. Given the demographics
of our population, all massage therapists should have
some understanding of effective strategies for working
with elderly and end-of-life clients. While we wait for
more research on caring for the dying, we need to rely
on massage therapists working with this population to
provide us with valuable case reports about how to best
use massage, alone and in combination with other modalities,
for supporting people at the end of life.
References
- For more information about Planetree, visit
www.planetree.com.
- See www.mettainstitute.org for more on the training program.
- See www.compassionate-touch.org for more information.
- For more information about reiki see: Piltch, C. “At ease: the restorative power of reiki
can improve your health and practice.” mtj 2008;47(1):64-74. For more on therapeutic touch,
visit www.therapeutictouch.org.
- Lafferty WE, Downey L, McCarty RL, et al. “Evaluating CAM treatment at the end of life: a review
of clinical trials for massage and meditation.” Complement Ther Med. 2006 Jun;14(2):100-12.
- Williams A, Selwyn PA, Liberti L, et al. "A randomized controlled trial of meditation and massage
effects on quality of life in people with late-stage disease: a pilot study." J Palliat Med. 2005
Oct;8(5):939-952.
- Meek, SS. “Effects of slow stroke back massage on relaxation in hospice clients.”
Image J Nurs. Sch. 1993;25(1):17-21.
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American Massage Therapy Association®
