Therapeutic touch therapy for healing acute wounds.

O'Mathúna DP, Ashford RL

Published Online:

August 8, 2010

Therapeutic touch is an alternative therapy that is gaining popularity as a wound treatment. Practitioners enter a meditative state and pass their hands above the patient's body to find and correct any imbalances in the patient's 'life energy' or chi. Scientific instruments have been unable to detect this energy. The review found contradictory evidence about the effects of therapeutic touch. Some trials showed a benefit while others suggested that the process slowed the rate of healing. The review concluded that trials do not show therapeutic touch to be beneficial in healing wounds from minor surgery and that the trials are at high risk of bias.

Abstract (click to read)

Background:

Therapeutic Touch (TT) is an alternative therapy that has gained popularity over the past two decades for helping wounds to heal. Practitioners enter a meditative state and pass their hands above the patient's body to find and correct any imbalances in the patient's 'life energy' or chi. Scientific instruments have been unable to detect this energy. The effect of TT on wound healing has been expounded in anecdotal publications.

Objectives:

To identify and review all relevant data to determine the effects of TT on healing acute wounds.

Search strategy:

For this third update, searches were conducted in the following databases: the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register (Searched 31/3/10); The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2010 Issue 1, 2010); Ovid MEDLINE (2007 to March Week 3, 2010); Ovid MEDLINE - In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations (Searched 30/3/10); Ovid EMBASE (2007 to 2010 Week 11); and EBSCO CINAHL (2007 to March 26, 2010).

Selection criteria:

All randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials, which compared the effect of TT with a placebo, another treatment, or no treatment control were considered. Studies which used TT as a stand-alone treatment, or as an adjunct to other therapies, were eligible.

Data collection and analysis:

One author (DO'M) determined the eligibility for inclusion of all trials in the review. Both authors conducted data extraction and evaluation of trial validity independently. Each trial was assessed using predetermined criteria.

Main results:

No new trials were identified for this update. Four trials in people with experimental wounds were included. The effect of TT on wound healing in these studies was variable. Two trials (n = 44 & 24) demonstrated a significant increase in healing associated with TT, while one trial found significantly worse healing after TT and the other found no significant difference. All trials are at high risk of bias.

Authors' conclusions:

There is no robust evidence that TT promotes healing of acute wounds.

This record should be cited as:

O'Mathúna DP, Ashford RL. Therapeutic touch for healing acute wounds. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2003, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD002766. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD002766

Assessed as up to date:

June 2, 2010

Find the research

Get full text at The Cochrane Library

Primary Review Group:

Wounds Group

Health topics:

Skin > Wounds > Acute management

Complementary & alternative medicine > Skin > Wounds

Complementary & alternative medicine > Wounds > Acute wounds

Wounds > Acute wounds

Cochrane Summaries^beta

Independent high-quality evidence for health care decision making

Therapeutic touch therapy for healing acute wounds.

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