The effects of therapeutic touch on pain.

PURPOSE

To better understand how Therapeutic Touch can be used in today's health care arena, this integrative literature review will examine current research that will help answer the question, Does Therapeutic Touch reduce pain?

METHOD

An extensive search was conducted of the online databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PsychLIT, and PubMed to retrieve research articles published from 1997 to 2007.

FINDINGS

Seven studies that were conducted between 1997 and 2004 were found and only five of the seven were included as pertinent evidence to answer the question. All of the research that was reviewed to answer whether Therapeutic Touch could significantly reduce pain revealed a majority of statistically significant positive results for implementing this intervention.

CONCLUSION

Because there are no identified risks to Therapeutic Touch as a pain relief measure, it is safe to recommend despite the limitations of current research.

IMPLICATIONS

Therapeutic Touch should be considered among the many possible nursing interventions for the treatment of pain.