by Barbara and Kevin Kunz
Pain reduction is a significant result of reflexology work. Thirty-four studies show positive outcomes for reflexology work ranging from "significant difference in" pain to "reduction in" pain. Now a new study homes in on the potential for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices including reflexology to help ease pain for hospital patients.
The study found CAM practices reduced pain as much as 50% for hospitalized patients. The research was conducted by Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis between January 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009. Some "1,837 cardiovascular, medical, surgical, orthopedics, spine, rehabilitation, oncology, and women's health patients" received "non-pharmaceutical services: mind body therapies to elicit the relaxation response, acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy, healing touch, music therapy, aromatherapy, and reflexology."
What's new is the focus of a study of pain reduction and CAM practices on a hospitalized patient population as a whole. "'Earlier studies (which) narrowly focused on whether specific integrative therapies manage pain in either cancer or surgical patients," says Jeffery A. Dusek, Ph.D., research director for the George Institute.'" Reflexology studies of pain among hospitalized patients follow this trend. The fifteen such studies were conducted among cancer and post-surgical patients or pregnant women in labor.
Dr. Gregory Plotnikoff, medical director of the Institute and one of the study's authors notes that "'We struggle to provide effective pain control while trying to avoid the adverse effects of opioid medications, such as respiratory depression, nausea, constipation, dizziness and falls.'"
Jeffery A. Dusek, Ph.D., research director for the George Institute notes, "Our real-world study broadly shows that these therapies effectively reduce pain by over 50 percent across numerous patient populations. Furthermore, they can be clinically implemented in real time, across, and under the operational and financial constraints within an acute care hospital.
"Dusek says future research will focus on defining appropriate intervention doses, duration of pain relief, and developing profiles of which patients are most likely to respond to nonpharmacologic treatments. Reductions in total hospitalization costs, medication use and adverse events will be quantified in future prospective research using the electronic medical record.
"'I think we will find that integrative approaches to pain management during the hospital stay will improve patient satisfaction and outcomes, and we will see cost savings from patients using fewer drugs and experiencing fewer adverse events," said Lori Knutson, RN, BSN, HN-BC, executive director of the George Institute."
It is unclear who provides reflexology services at the hospital. No reflexology studies were cited in the bibliography for this study.
