Therapeutic Touch (TT) is described by proponents as "an energy modality which encourages healing". TT practitioners say that by placing their hands near the patient they can detect and manipulate the patient's energy fields, which allows them to assist the natural healing process.[1] There is no scientific evidence to support the claims made by TT; in fact, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that TT practitioners could not even detect the presence or absence of a hand placed a few inches above theirs when their vision was obstructed.[2][3][4] The existence of a "biofield" or "bioenergetic field," a necessary component of TT theory, directly contradicts many principles of modern physics, chemistry, and biology.[5][6]
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| NCCAM classifications |
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[edit] Origin
Dora Kunz, theosophy promoter and one-time president of the Theosophical Society of America, and Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N., nursing educator at New York University, developed Therapeutic Touch in the 1970s.[1][7][8]
Therapeutic Touch has roots in ancient healing practices,[9] although it has no connection with any religious beliefs. Dr. Krieger notes, "A basic recognition upon which Therapeutic Touch was developed initially was exactly that in the final analysis, it is the healee (client) who heals himself. The healer or therapist, in this view, acts as a human energy support system until the healee's own immunological system is robust enough to take over."[10]
The creation of TT occurred as part of a larger movement supported by some within the nursing community away from the scientific method; a movement that embraced anecdotal evidence at the expense of biological plausibility and testable evidence. Other fringe nursing theories that emerged during the 1970s include the Theory of Transpersonal Caring and Health as Expanding Consciousness. [6]. The American Holistic Nurses Association endorses TT along with astrology, prayer, psychic surgery, chelation therapy, a potentially deadly treatment approved only for acute heavy metal toxicity but employed by many alternative medicine practitioners, and numerous other "alternative modalities."[11][6]
[edit] Description
Although the word "touch" is part of the modality's name, physical touch is not necessary when Practitioners offer a treatment. Another name for Therapeutic Touch is Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch (NCTT), giving it the moniker 'Distance Healing'.[12]
The Therapeutic Touch Network of ontario (TTNO) developed a list of assumptions underpinning Krieger-Kunz Therapeutic Touch.[citation needed] These assumptions are:
- In a state of health, Life Energy flows freely in, through, and out of the field in an orderly manner.
- Disease or injury affects, obstructs, disorders, or depletes the flow of energy.
- Thereafter, Touch practitioners attempt to influence the energy flow to restore the integrity of the field and move it toward wholeness and health.
Always individualized, a session usually does not exceed 20 minutes. Practitioners can administer Therapeutic Touch while his client is in a sitting or lying position and, followed by a rest period.
[edit] Research
Research of Krieger-Kunz Therapeutic Touch finds that Therapeutic Touch reduces anxiety, regulates and supports the immune function, alters the perception of pain, and encourages general healing.[citation needed] In a study conducted by Dolores Krieger in 1975 the effect of Therapeutic Touch on hemoglobin levels was examined. Practitioners of Krieger-Kunz Therapeutic Touch trained nurses to offer this service to patients as part of general nursing care. The control group received the nursing care without Therapeutic Touch. The author of the study found that TT increased hemoglobin in only three patients.[9][13] A 2004 study examined the effects of Therapeutic Touch on dementia. The findings of this study suggest that Therapeutic Touch decreases the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.[14]
Attempting to study TT in 1996, the James Randi Educational Foundation and the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT) sent invitations to more than 60 nursing organizations and individuals, including Dolores Krieger, offering $742,000 to any practitioner who could prove their ability to detect "biofields." only one practitioner responded, and the results were negative (she correctly identified only 11 of 20 subjects as either suffering from chronic pain or suffering no chronic medical conditions). While PhACT acknowledged that one test on one practitioner is not ground to dismiss the entire theory of TT, the fact that only one of the 40,000 possible respondents accepted the challenge calls into question TT practitioners' belief in their own work.[15]
In 1998, Emily Rosa, at 11 years of age, became the youngest person to have a paper accepted by the Journal of the American Medical Association for her study of therapeutic touch, which debunked the claims of TT practitioners. Her study consisted of testing 21 practitioners of TT to determine their ability to detect the aura they claim surrounds everyone. The practitioners stood on one side of a cardboard screen, while Emily stood on the other. The practitioners then placed their hands through holes in the screen. Emily then flipped a coin to determine which of the practitioner's hands she would place hers near (without, of course, touching the hand). The practitioners then were to indicate if they could sense her biofield, and where her hand was. Although all of the participants had asserted that they would be able to do this, the actual results did not support their assertions. After repeated trials the practitioners had succeeded in locating her hand at a rate not significantly different from chance. They were right 44% of the time, slightly worse than chance.[16][17][7] Upon publishing the results, JAMA editor George D. Lundberg, M.D, recommended that patients and insurance companies alike refuse to pay for TT or at least question whether or not payment is appropriate "...until or unless additional honest experimentation demonstrates an actual effect." Dr. Lundberg also commented that TT practitioners are ethically obligated to share the results of this study with patients.[7]
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