Completed Healing Touch Studies          

This is a list of published studies on Healing Touch.  There are many more that are completed but not yet published.  See Research page).

• Healing Touch With Guided Imagery for PTSD in Returning Active Duty Military: A Randomized Controlled Trial.  Authors: Jain, Shamini et al.  Source: Military Medicine, Volume 177, # 9, 9/2012 , pp. 1015-1021(7).  Healing Touch and Guided Imagery reduced Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms while improving quality of life and decreasing depression and hostility among returning military personnel.  Read the abstract.

• Preservation of immune function in cervical cancer patients during chemoradiation using a novel integrative approach.  Authors: Susan K. Lutgendorfa, et al.  Source: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Vol 24, #8, 11/2010, pp1231-1240. Patients receiving chemoradiation for cervical cancer participated in a randomized clinical trial using Healing Touch (HT), versus relaxation training (RT) and usual care (UC).  HT patients had a minimal decrease in natural killer cell cytotoxicity (NKCC), an indicator of a stronger immune function, over the course of treatment whereas NKCC of RT and UC patients declined sharply during chemoradiation. HT patients showed greater decreases in two different indicators of depressed mood compared to RT and UC. No between group differences were observed in QOL, treatment delay, or clinically-rated toxicities. Read abstract.
  
  

• Pilot Study of Healing Touch and Progressive Relaxation for Chronic Neuropathic Pain in Persons With Spinal Cord Injury.  Principal Investigator: Diane Wind Wardell, PhD, RNC, HNC, CHTP, University of Texas. Co-Investigators: Gabriel Tan, PhD, Diana Rintala, PhD, and Zhigang Duan MD,MS. Published Date: December 2006. Source: Journal of Holistic Nursing, Volume 24 Number 4, December 2006 231-240. Read the Abstract.

• Healing Touch Augments Radiation Therapy
  Authors: Cynthia A. Loveland Cook, Ph.D., R.N.; Joanne F. Guerrerio, R.N.; and Victoria E. Slater, Ph.D., R.N. Originally published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 2004, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 34-40.  Study Sponsor :Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and the School of Social Service, St. Louis University, in St. Louis, Missouri.  Study Completion Date: 2004. Read the Article

• Therapeutic massage and healing touch improve symptoms in cancer.
  Principal Investigator: Janice Post-White, RN, PhD,FAAN.  Co-Investigators: Mary Ellen Kinney, RN, BA, CHTP, Carol Wilcox, RN, MS, I.J. Lerner, MD, and J. Bernsten, RN, MS.  Date: December 2003. Read the Abstract

• The Lived Experience of Healing Touch with Cancer Patients.  Principal Investigator: Charlene Ann Christiano, Florida International University.  Date: 1997. Read the Abstract