1.3: Systematic Reviews of Massage Therapy

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Massage Therapy – The Science is Emerging

Systematic reviews are used as part of an evidence-based model of care to help identify and evaluate existing research for a specific topic. Conducting a systematic review is a complex process. This specific type of research requires multiple research experts each with their own specialized background to collaborate and analyze all the existing research available for one specific topic.

First researchers will pick a topic – for example we could say, ‘the use of massage therapy for low back pain’. Then the researchers comb through research databases to find studies from around the world carried out on that specific topic. After the search is completed the articles are evaluated based on a predefined inclusion criteria. Then articles are separated by those that meet the pre-defined criteria and those that do not meet the predefined criteria.

The research articles that meet the pre-defined criteria are then individually screened for potential biases. There are several ways that biases sneak into research, for massage therapy one of the primary sources of bias is due to therapist and patient blinding (this is hard to control for). In addition to evaluating studies for potential biases, researchers are looking for potential harms, and treatment effect size. Essentially, does this treatment work, and how does it compare to a placebo/sham intervention.

Healthcare Triage: Systematic Review and Evidence-based Medicine

A List of Systematic Reviews of Massage Therapy

Twenty years ago, there was a limited number of systematic reviews of massage therapy, since 2005 there has been a steady increase in the quality and number of systematic reviews of massage therapy.

Figure \(1.3.1\) Systematic Reviews of Massage THerapy (1997-2020)
Graphical representation of the steady increase in number of systematic reviews.

Improvement in Quality & Quantity

Based on these systematic reviews massage therapy has a growing body of evidence supporting its effectiveness in reducing pain and improving health-related quality of life in a variety of health conditions and rehabilitation, including but not limited to:

Chronic Pain (Busse et al., 2017; Crawford et al., 2016; Skelly et al., 2020)
Low Back Pain (Chou et al., 2017; Qaseem et al., 2017; Brasure et al., 2019; Skelly et al., 2020)
Neck Pain (Chou et al., 2018; Côté et al., 2016; Skelly et al., 2020)
Headaches and Migraines (Busse et al., 2017; Côté et al., 2019)
Temporomandibular Disorder (Martins et al., 2016; Randhawa et al., 2016)
Shoulder Pain (Hawk et al., 2017; Steuri, et al., 2017; Pieters et al., 2020)
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Huisstede et al., 2018)
Lateral Epicondylitis (Sutton et al., 2016)
Arthritis (Nelson et al., 2017)
Hip Osteoarthritis (Cibulka et al., 2017; Skelly et al., 2018)
Knee Osteoarthritis (Busse et al., 2017; Newberry et al., 2017)
Plantar Fasciitis (Fraser et al., 2018)
Lateral Ankle Sprain and Chronic Ankle Instability (Martin et al., 2021; Powden et al., 2017)
Surgical Pain Population (Boitor et al., 2017; Boyd et al., 2016; Chou et al., 2020; Kukimoto et al., 2017)
Symptom Burden of Critically Ill Adults (Thrane et al., 2019)
Cancer-Related Fatigue (Hilfiker et al., 2018)
Cancer-Related Pain (Boyd et al., 2016; Calcagni et al., 2019)
Fibromyalgia (Busse et al., 2017; Skelly et al., 2020; Yuan et al., 2015)
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (Davis et al., 2020; Dupuy et al., 2018; Guo et al., 2017)
Postpartum Maternal Sleep (Owais et al., 2018)
Pain Management in Labour (Smith et al., 2018)
Antenatal Anxiety and Depression (Hall et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2019)
Hypertrophic Scarring (Ault et al., 2018)
Palliative Care (Armstrong et al., 2019; Zeng et al., 2018)
Reducing Symptoms of Depression in People with Dementia (Watt et al., 2021)
Dementia (behavioral & psychological symptoms) (Leng et al., 2020; Margenfeld et al., 2019; Watt et al., 2019)
Parkinson’s Disease (motor and non-motor symptoms) (Angelopoulou et al., 2020)

Key Takeaways

Massage therapy is a clinically-oriented healthcare option, that is increasingly being used alongside standard medical care to help manage a number of symptoms. This chapter highlights systematic reviews and meta-analyses that support the use of massage therapy.

References and Sources

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