Massage Relief for Advanced Cancer Pain
This is an article I can really identify with. On several occasions following major surgery, I willingly and gratefully submitted to the tender hands of the night nurse, in her endeavor to help me relax and get to sleep. And yes, the massage definitely helped reduce pain levels and, of course, lubricate the skin of my otherwise dormant body to prevent bed-sores.
Each experience was in a private hospital during the 1980’s in Australia, when staffing levels were adequate and patient care, excellent. I’m not sure that such would be the case today, certainly not in public hospitals, with staffing levels and hospital funding in an abysmal state. Where doctor’s often work on a 24 hour roster basis and nurses are continually called upon to do double shifts.
But what I am questioning here, I guess, is why has it taken all this time for doctors to realize that cancer patients would be well served by regular massage, as would almost every other chronically ill patient. Perhaps doctors should learn from the bedside experience of their nurses.
Extract:
By Judith Groch, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
Published: September 17, 2008
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
DENVER, Sept. 17 — Massage therapy afforded patients with advanced cancer immediate relief of pain and improvement in mood, a randomized trial found.
The single-blind study that compared massage therapy with simple-touch therapy included 380 adults with advanced cancer (stages III or IV), 90% in hospice care, with moderate-to-severe pain. The patients were enrolled from November 2003 through October 2006.
Massage therapy, provided by licensed therapists, consisted of six 30-minute sessions over two weeks with at least 24 hours between treatment sessions.
The intervention included gentle, smooth, gliding strokes (effleurage), squeezing, rolling, and kneading of muscles (petrissage), and trigger-point release using finger pressure at painful areas to break cycles of spasm and pain.
See full article at: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PainManagement/PainManagement/tb/10940
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