Survey Finds Massage Rates As High As Medication

1 In 5 Uses It
By Lloyd de Vries

(WebMD) For the treatment of pain, Americans rate massage as highly as medications, a new survey shows.
Conducted by an independent research firm, the annual survey is the ninth commissioned by the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA).
It shows that one in five U.S. adults got a therapeutic massage in the last year. Three-fourths of them would recommend it to others — one reason for the body therapy's growing popularity.
Among those who actually had a massage in the past year, 28 percent say massage therapy gives them "the greatest relief from pain." Another 28 percent say medication gives them the greatest relief. Chiropractic comes in third at 11 percent, followed by 8 percent who got the most pain relief from physical therapy, 3 percent who said acupuncture was best for their pain, and 1 percent whose pain best responded to biofeedback.
Survey Findings
The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corp. International in Princeton, N.J., surveyed a national sample of 1,014 U.S. adults. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. It found that:
90 percent of Americans feel massage is good for a person's health.
93 percent agree with the statement that massage can be effective for pain relief.
Use of massage in people age 65 and older has tripled from 4 percent in 1997 to 15 percent in 2005.
22 percent of Americans had a massage in the past year; 34 percent had a massage in the last five years.
73 percent of those who had a massage would recommend it to a person they know.
46 percent of respondents at some time had a massage to relieve pain.
Among respondents who discussed massage with their health care provider, 57 percent said this health professional strongly recommended massage or encouraged them to get a massage.
Whole-Body Approach To Pain
Massaging sore muscles obviously reduces pain. But massage is really meant as a whole-body approach, says AMTA vice president and licensed massage therapist M.K. Brennan, RN, LMBT.
"One of the things about massage that helps pain is that it goes down to the heart of where people feel their pain," Brennan tells WebMD. "There is the overall sense of well-being one can get from the massage approach. And the stress responses in the body associated with pain, such as elevated cortisol, are reduced through massage."
For these reasons, massage can be used to treat many different kinds of pain, says Tiffany Field, PhD, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
"Basically we have found massage to be effective in chronic pain syndromes in arthritis and diabetes; in depressive disorders such as ones that involve addiction like eating disorders; in chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and other autoimmune disorders — HIV-associated diseases, too," Field told WebMD in a June 29 interview. "We have looked at the A-to-Z of medical conditions, and we have not found a single condition massage has not been effective for."
Brennan says all trained massage therapists learn the same basic techniques. As they go on to advanced training, massage therapists may specialize in one or more specific kinds of massage. There are more than 200 of these techniques, according to the Massage.com web site.
Qualifications For Therapists
Brennan recommends that a person seeking therapeutic massage look for a well-trained professional. Most states, she says, require that massage therapists be licensed or registered. And the AMTA web site maintains a referral list of massage therapists who meet certain standards:
Graduate from a minimum 500 in-class-hour massage therapy training program, or
Pass the National Certification Examination in therapeutic massage and bodywork, or
Possess a current AMTA-accepted license to practice, and
Earn continuing education credit, and
Uphold the AMTA Code of Ethics.
"If you are looking for someone dealing with chronic or acute pain issues, you may want to look for someone who does sports massage, neuromuscular massage therapy, orthopedic massage, or someone who does craniosacral work or uses strain/counterstrain techniques," Brennan says. "But any list like this leaves out some qualified professionals. The best thing to do is to find a qualified massage therapist and talk with him or her about what you want massage for, be it relaxation or pain relief. Then ask what is their experience in addressing that issue."
Brennan says weekly massage is most effective but admits that not everyone has the time or money to get massage therapy that often.
Field, however, has a solution. Though there's no replacement for a qualified massage professional, she recommends that families learn basic massage techniques.
"In our studies, we try with adults to get them two 20-minute massages a week," she says. "With kids, we use parents as therapists so they can give their children massages every night, 10 minutes before bedtime. We say this because most of the children in our studies have chronic illnesses and can really benefit from a daily dose of massage."
Sources: 2005 Massage Therapy Consumer Survey, Opinion Research Corp. International, Princeton, N.J., conducted Aug. 11-14, 2005. M.K. Brennan, RN, LMBT, vice president, American Massage Therapy Association. Tiffany Field, PhD, director, Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine
(WebMD) For the treatment of pain, Americans rate massage as highly as medications, a new survey shows.
Conducted by an independent research firm, the annual survey is the ninth commissioned by the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA).
It shows that one in five U.S. adults got a therapeutic massage in the last year. Three-fourths of them would recommend it to others — one reason for the body therapy's growing popularity.
Among those who actually had a massage in the past year, 28 percent say massage therapy gives them "the greatest relief from pain." Another 28 percent say medication gives them the greatest relief. Chiropractic comes in third at 11 percent, followed by 8 percent who got the most pain relief from physical therapy, 3 percent who said acupuncture was best for their pain, and 1 percent whose pain best responded to biofeedback.

Survey Findings
The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corp. International in Princeton, N.J., surveyed a national sample of 1,014 U.S. adults. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. It found that:90 percent of Americans feel massage is good for a person's health.
93 percent agree with the statement that massage can be effective for pain relief.
Use of massage in people age 65 and older has tripled from 4 percent in 1997 to 15 percent in 2005.
22 percent of Americans had a massage in the past year; 34 percent had a massage in the last five years.
73 percent of those who had a massage would recommend it to a person they know.
46 percent of respondents at some time had a massage to relieve pain.
Among respondents who discussed massage with their health care provider, 57 percent said this health professional strongly recommended massage or encouraged them to get a massage.
Whole-Body Approach To Pain
Massaging sore muscles obviously reduces pain. But massage is really meant as a whole-body approach, says AMTA vice president and licensed massage therapist M.K. Brennan, RN, LMBT.
"One of the things about massage that helps pain is that it goes down to the heart of where people feel their pain," Brennan tells WebMD. "There is the overall sense of well-being one can get from the massage approach. And the stress responses in the body associated with pain, such as elevated cortisol, are reduced through massage."
For these reasons, massage can be used to treat many different kinds of pain, says Tiffany Field, PhD, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
"Basically we have found massage to be effective in chronic pain syndromes in arthritis and diabetes; in depressive disorders such as ones that involve addiction like eating disorders; in chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and other autoimmune disorders — HIV-associated diseases, too," Field told WebMD in a June 29 interview. "We have looked at the A-to-Z of medical conditions, and we have not found a single condition massage has not been effective for."Brennan says all trained massage therapists learn the same basic techniques. As they go on to advanced training, massage therapists may specialize in one or more specific kinds of massage. There are more than 200 of these techniques, according to the Massage.com web site.

Qualifications For Therapists
Brennan recommends that a person seeking therapeutic massage look for a well-trained professional. Most states, she says, require that massage therapists be licensed or registered. And the AMTA web site maintains a referral list of massage therapists who meet certain standards:Graduate from a minimum 500 in-class-hour massage therapy training program, or
Pass the National Certification Examination in therapeutic massage and bodywork, or
Possess a current AMTA-accepted license to practice, and
Earn continuing education credit, and
Uphold the AMTA Code of Ethics."If you are looking for someone dealing with chronic or acute pain issues, you may want to look for someone who does sports massage, neuromuscular massage therapy, orthopedic massage, or someone who does craniosacral work or uses strain/counterstrain techniques," Brennan says. "But any list like this leaves out some qualified professionals. The best thing to do is to find a qualified massage therapist and talk with him or her about what you want massage for, be it relaxation or pain relief. Then ask what is their experience in addressing that issue."
Brennan says weekly massage is most effective but admits that not everyone has the time or money to get massage therapy that often.
Field, however, has a solution. Though there's no replacement for a qualified massage professional, she recommends that families learn basic massage techniques.
"In our studies, we try with adults to get them two 20-minute massages a week," she says. "With kids, we use parents as therapists so they can give their children massages every night, 10 minutes before bedtime. We say this because most of the children in our studies have chronic illnesses and can really benefit from a daily dose of massage."
Sources: 2005 Massage Therapy Consumer Survey, Opinion Research Corp. International, Princeton, N.J., conducted Aug. 11-14, 2005. M.K. Brennan, RN, LMBT, vice president, American Massage Therapy Association. Tiffany Field, PhD, director, Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine

trigger point therapy, jackson wy, Benefits of Massage Therapy, Read More about the benefits of Massage Therapy.

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  'Mind-body' therapy shows promise for fibromyalgia

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK |

(Reuters Health) - A form of 'mind-body' therapy that focuses on the role of emotions in physical pain may offer some relief to people with fibromyalgia, a small clinical trial suggests.

The study, of 45 women with fibromyalgia, found that those who learned a technique called "affective self-awareness" were more likely to show a significant reduction in their pain over six months.

Overall, 46 percent of the women had a 30-percent or greater reduction in their pain severity, as measured by a standard pain-rating scale. In contrast, of study participants who were assigned to a wait-list for therapy, none showed a similar decline in pain.

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome marked by widespread pain -- including discomfort at specific "tender points" in the body -- along with symptoms such as fatigue, irritable bowel and sleep problems. It is estimated to affect up to 5 million U.S. adults, most commonly middle-aged women.

The precise cause of fibromyalgia is unknown -- there are no physical signs, such as inflammation and tissue damage in the painful area -- but some researchers believe the disorder involves problems in how the brain processes pain signals.

Standard treatments include painkillers, antidepressants, cognitive- behavioral therapy and exercise therapy. However, many people with fibromyalgia find that their symptoms -- pain, in particular -- persist despite treatment.

Part of that, according to the researchers on the new study, may be because standard treatments do not specifically address the role psychological stress and emotions can play in triggering people's pain.

That is not to say that the pain people with fibromyalgia feel is "all in their head," stressed Dr. Howard Schubiner, of St. John Health/ Providence Hospital and Medical Centers in Southfield, Michigan.

"The pain is very real," Schubiner said in an interview. But, he explained, pain and emotions are "connected in the brain," and emotional factors may act to trigger "learned nerve pathways" that give rise to pain.

Past studies have found that compared with people without fibromyalgia, those with the disorder have higher rates of stressful life events, such as childhood abuse, marital problems and high levels of job stress. There is also evidence that they are relatively less aware of their own emotions and more reluctant to express their feelings, particularly anger.

For the new study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Schubiner and his colleagues tested the effects of affective self-awareness -- a technique Schubiner developed and uses in treating certain chronic-pain conditions -- on fibromyalgia.

They randomly assigned 45 women with the condition to either undergo the therapy or go on a wait-list for treatment, serving as a control group. Women in the treatment group each had a one-on-one consultation, then attended three group meetings to learn the affective self-awareness techniques so that they could carry them out on their own.

The therapy involves an educational component where patients learn about the emotion-pain connection. They learn specific techniques -- including mindfulness meditation and "expressive" writing -- for recognizing and dealing with the emotions that may be contributing to their pain. Patients are also encouraged to get back to any exercise or other activities that they have been avoiding due to pain.

Schubiner's team found that six months later, 46 percent of the treatment group had at least a 30-percent reduction in their pain ratings compared with scores at the outset. And 21 percent had a 50-percent or greater reduction.

None of the women in the control group had a comparable improvement.

The study is only the first clinical trial to test affective self-awareness for fibromyalgia, and it had a number of limitations, including its small size. In addition, the control group received no active therapy to serve as a comparison.

That is important because it is possible for patients to benefit from simply receiving attention from a healthcare provider, or being part of small-group sessions with other people suffering from the same condition, for example.

Schubiner also acknowledged that this general "model" for understanding and addressing fibromyalgia pain is controversial.

He said that he and his colleagues have applied for funding to conduct a larger clinical trial comparing affective self-awareness with standard cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Affective self-awareness and cognitive-behavioral therapy have similarities, according to Schubiner. Both, for example, try to show patients that they have the power to improve their own health.

A key difference, Schubiner said, is that affective self-awareness asks people to "directly engage" the emotions that may be helping to drive their symptoms.

Another difference is that, right now, only a small number of healthcare providers practice affective self-awareness, according to Schubiner.

Some components of the technique, such as teachings in mindfulness meditation, are more widely available. But whether those practices in isolation would help fibromyalgia patients' pain is not clear.

SOURCE: link.reuters.com/bes55m

Journal of General Internal Medicine, online June 8, 2010.

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