A placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of massaging on infantile colic using a random-effects joint model

The effect of therapeutic touch on colic symptoms in infantile colic infants: A randomised controlled study

AIM

This study aimed to examine the effects of therapeutic touch (TT) on infantile colic symptoms (Infant Colic Scale (ICS) score, crying time and sleep time).

METHODS

This randomised controlled trial included infants aged 4-12 weeks diagnosed with infantile colic in a pediatric unit of a hospital. Infants were assigned to intervention or control groups using a stratified randomisation method. The intervention group received TT sessions six times, 3 days a week, in addition to usual care for 2 weeks. The control group received the usual care. Data were collected using Mother-Infant Information Form, ICS, Crying and Sleep Time Follow-Up Forms. The infants were followed up for two weeks.

RESULTS

A total of 64 infants who met the criteria were included in the study, including intervention (n = 32) and control (n = 32) groups. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups (intervention and control) in terms of ICS scores (U = 4.5; P < 0.001; d = 3.252; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.505-3.999), crying time (F = 57.097; ŋp 2 = 0.461; P < 0.001) and sleep time (F = 17.884; ŋp 2 = 0.211; P < 0.001). When the intervention group was compared with the control group at all time points, the size of the effect (group × time interaction) was found to be high.

CONCLUSIONS

TT effectively relieved symptoms, decreased crying time and increased sleep time in infants with infantile colic. TT is recommended to relieve colic in infants.

Comparison of Effectiveness of Manual Therapy for Infant Crying: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Objectives

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to assess and compare the effectiveness of manual therapy in alleviating infant crying, a common symptom of nocturnal crying (NC) and infantile colic (IC).

Methods

Total effective rate, crying time and adverse events were used as outcome indicators. To assess the quality, the risk of bias was determined for each study by two authors, using the Cochrane Collaboration's risk of bias tool. RevMan 5.0 was used for data analysis. A total of 98 articles were identified from 6 electronic databases.

Results

Among them, twenty-seven studies which included 13 NC and 14 IC were included. Meta-analysis showed favorable effects tuina therapy on total effective rate (TER) of NC (RR 1.20 [95% CI 1.05 to 1.37], p = 0.007), chiropractic therapy on crying time change of IC (SMD -0.83 [95% CI -1.61 to -0.06], p = 0.04) and massage on total crying time of IC (SMD -0.86 [95% CI -1.09 to -0.63], p < 0.00001). This systematic review compares different manual therapies for the treatment of NC and IC. While tuina, chiropractic, and massage show results in alleviating symptoms, the overall evidence remains limited due to the low quality and heterogeneity of the included studies.

Conclusion

Therefore, further high-quality research with unified control groups is needed to establish manual therapy as a recommended treatment option for NC and IC. Protocol registration number is CRD42022348143 01/08/2022.