Energy balancing through touch for health

Controlled pilot study of the effects of neuromuscular therapy in patients with Parkinson's disease

The objectives of this study is to examine the effects of neuromuscular therapy (NMT) on motor and nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). Thirty-six subjects with PD were randomly assigned to NMT or music relaxation (MR, or active control). Subjects received treatment twice a week for 4 weeks. Testing was conducted at baseline, after final treatment, and 8 days after final treatment. Primary outcome measures were the Motor subscale of the United Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and the Clinical Global Impression scale (CGI-Change). Secondary outcome measures included a PD-specific quality of life scale (PDQ-39), quantitative measures of motor function, and severity scales for anxiety and depression symptoms. NMT resulted in a significant and sustained improvement in the Motor subscale of the UPDRS (P < or = 0.0001), most notable in the tremor scores. Also improved 1 week after the last treatment were the CGI scores (P = 0.007) and the finger-tapping speed (P = 0.001). The MR active control group had a slight improvement in tremor but evidenced no other change in motor function. Both groups exhibited a modest improvement in quality of life immediately after the last treatment. This effect was sustained for 8 days only in the MR group. In the nonmotor domains, the MR group evidenced improvements in mood (P = 0.001) and anxiety (P = 0.002), whereas NMT had no effect on mood (P = 0.09), and its initial effect on anxiety (P = 0.0009) dissipated after 8 days (P = 0.40). Group differences for UPDRS motor score and patient CGI-Change were superior in the NMT compared to the MR group. There was no group difference in PDQ-39 scores or in nonmotor measures. The findings suggest that NMT can improve motor and selected nonmotor symptoms in PD and that this effect is more durable for the motor symptoms. The results of this pilot study warrant larger controlled studies to examine dose range, durability, and mechanisms of NMT in PD function.

Meaning of Ki Related to Touch in Caring

In an attempt to identify the concept of Ki related to touch within the context of caring, and further, to provide specific information that may lead to culturally sensitive nursing intervention for the population who relate the concept of Ki to touch in a caring situation, a qualitative analysis was planned and carried out. Data was collected using interactive interviews with 19 health care professionals, 4 alternative therapists, 10 inpatients, and 13 healthy adults, and analyzed by the latent content analysis. Ki, the interactive energy flow, and touch, the activator of Ki flow, were postulated from six categories of perceived meanings of Ki related to touch.

The conceptual structure of physical touch in caring

AIMS OF THE STUDY

This study was conducted to clarify and to conceptualize the phenomena of physical touch in caring.

BACKGROUND

Physical touch occurs frequently in patient care situations and has specific meanings within the context of caring. However, the concept of physical touch in caring has not been well articulated in the literatures, although the phenomena of touch and physical touch have been studied in relation to comfort, sense of well-being and connectedness.

DESIGN/METHOD

The Hybrid Model of concept development was applied to develop a conceptual structure of physical touch in caring, which included a field study carried out in Seoul, South Korea using in-depth interviews with 39 adult subjects consisting of health-care professionals, in-patients, and healthy persons.

RESULTS/FINDINGS

The concept of physical touch in caring emerged as a complex phenomenon having meanings on several different dimensions which were encompassed several attributes and the conceptual structure of physical touch in caring centred around five aspects of goals for physical touch: promoting physical comfort, promoting emotional comfort, promoting mind-body comfort, performing social role, and sharing spirituality.

CONCLUSIONS

Physical touch in caring as a concept having the dimensions of physical, emotional, social, and spiritual significance needs to be treated in a holistic way and it is possible to enrich the meanings and methods of physical touch in nursing so that its application may have effects that have positive impacts on patients' well-being and comfort.

The choice of alternative therapy for health care: testing some propositions

This study investigated some of the factors associated with the choice of alternative health therapy that have attracted the greatest attention in the largely exploratory research carried out to date. Patients of an alternative health centre and a comparable community sample were interviewed by telephone. The alternative therapy respondents showed a substantially lower level of confidence in the efficacy of conventional medicine in general, but they were not clearly less satisfied with their recent experiences with medical practitioners and treatment. Even though there was no evidence that they suffered more from persistent medical conditions, they were clearly less satisfied with the ability of conventional treatment to relieve them. Alternative therapy respondents preferred alternative treatment for a wide range of symptoms, but they were selective in their choices of treatment. They perceived themselves to be substantially more "unconventional" than did the community sample. Overall, the variables that best distinguished the alternative therapy group from the community sample were "unconventionality" and "general lack of confidence in conventional medical treatment", both of which made significant independent contributions. It is suggested that research in the area should now move from an exploratory approach to the testing of explicit explanatory propositions.