Researching The Benefits Of Massage

	Job Stress
	Hospital Job Stress
	Nurses Stress
	Blood Pressure
	Tension Headache, Pain, Anxiety, Heart Rate

Job Stress

The Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami (TRI) has documented the positive effects of massage therapy on job performance and stress reduction. The research indicates that a basic 15-minute chair massage, provided twice weekly, resulted in decreased job stress and significant increase in productivity.

Field, T. Ironson, G. Scafidi, F. Nawrocki, T. Goncalnes, A. Burman, I., Pickens, J. Fox, N. Schanberg, S. & Kuhn, C. (1996). Massage Therapy reduces anxiety and enhances EEG pattern of alertness and math computations. International Journal of Neuroscience. 86, 197-205.

Link to: The following summary was provided by the Touch Therapy Institute:

The Job Stress Study was designed to assess massage therapy effects on job-related stress, anxiety, productivity and job satisfaction. A 15-minute chair massage was provided twice weekly during the lunch period for 5 weeks. The preliminary results were as follows:
	Participants reported feeling less fatigue and being able to think more clearly
	EEG alpha, beta and theta waves were altered in ways that are consistent with enhanced alertness (i.e. decreased alpha, increased beta and theta )
	Math Problems were completed in approximately half the time with approximately 50% less errors by the end of the period
	Anxiety and job stress levels were lower at the end of the one-month period
	The massage therapist reported that the subjects were more relaxed by the end of the one-month period

Hospital Job Stress

Hospital nursing and physician staff members were provided massage therapy, relaxation therapy and music therapy. These therapies significantly reduced anxiety, depression & fatigue as well as increased vigor.

Field. T, Quintino O., Henteleff T., Wells - Keifte, L. & Delvecchio - Feinberg, G. (1997). Job stress reduction therapies. Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine, 3, 54-56.

Nurses Stress

A Randomized, Controlled Study of the Efficacy of 15-Minute Therapeutic Massage Treatments Versus Seated Rest on Pain and Tension Reduction in Hospital Employees found that work-based massage treatments for nursing staff significantly reduced pain intensity and tension levels when compared with seated rest.

In addition, the massage treatments resulted in a significant improvement in overall mood. Finally, the duration of these effects was reported to have lasted longer in the massage group than in the seated rest group. Pain relief, tension reduction and relaxation were reported to have persisted for up to a day or longer in more than 70 percent of the massage group participants.

The authors conclude that further research is warranted to examine the feasibility of instituting a hospital-wide massage therapy program for employees. It remains to be determined whether such a program would contribute to improving job satisfaction and performance and reducing absenteeism.

Link to…The study, conducted by Joel Katz, phD, Adarose Ardiel Wowk, RN, BscPsych; Dianne Culp, registered massage therapist; and Heather Wakeling, BA and published in the journal of Pain Research and Management evaluated whether a series of eight 15-minute, workplace-based massage treatments would be effective in reducing pain and tension experienced by nursing staff at a large teaching hospital, the Toronto General Hospital.

Thirty-four staff members from four hospital units volunteered to participate in the randomized controlled study. The mean age of the sample was 39 years and 29 of the participants were registered nurses. The participants received either eight 15-minute sessions of Swedish massage or eight 15-minute sessions of seated rest. The massage treatments and seated rest took place in a quiet corner of common staff areas at work.

The researchers evaluated pain, tension, mood and degree of relaxation before and after each session using well-validated and reliable measures.

Blood Pressure

Another study done last year at Bowling Green State University found that a 15-minute on-site massage significantly reduced blood pressure. And in the Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, Gwen Jones, Ph.D, & Karen Shulman, M.A., also report that weekly chair massage reduced employee anxiety in a firm that was downsizing. Lucky workers who got a 15-minute rubdown once a week felt less stress than colleagues who received a weekly 15-minute break. And their calm feelings lingered weeks after the study ended.

See Massage Therapy as a Workplace Intervention for Reduction of Stress study.

Tension Headache, Pain, Anxiety, Heart Rate

Sara Bowerman, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on massage and mood change for the California School of Professional Psychology, found:

	Massage reduced the effect of pain on tension headache sufferers by an average of 70 percent. A control group that took a placebo and received no massage experienced a pain reduction of only 37 percent (Keller and Bzdek)
	Massage significantly reduced anxiety and decreased heart rate among adults who were experiencing stress anxiety states. All of the adults treated had been highly resistant to traditional forms of treatment, such as medicine and standard methods of relaxation (McKensie, Wilson, Watson and Scott)
	Massage was an effective method of relieving anxiety among 18 nursing home patients. Various physiological tests concluded massage decreased sympathetic (stressful) activity and increased parasympathetic (relaxation) activity(Fakouri and Jones)