Massage Therapy Research

Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice presents the latest research examining the evidence for the use of various massage therapy techniques in treating pathological conditions and special populations. In this resource readers will find a synthesis of information from the diverse fields of kinesiology, medicine, nursing, physical therapy, and psychology. Authored by experts carefully selected for their specific knowledge, experience, and research acumen, Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice will assist both students and practitioners in these areas: • Learning the benefits of evidence-based massage therapy practice • Understanding various research methods • Developing research skills by learning guidelines for writing case reports and journal articles • Understanding how to integrate massage therapy research into education and clinical practice This text presents a seamless integration of research and practice in four parts, providing readers first with a background to the field of massage therapy followed by discussion of research methods. Next is an evidence-based presentation of the efficacy of massage therapy for conditions and populations often encountered in massage therapy practice. This clinicial section presents three patient populations (pediatric, athletic, and elderly); three pain-related types (headache, neck and shoulder pain, and low back pain); and six conditions that massage therapists may encounter: pregnancy and labor, scar treatment, cancer, fibromyalgia, anxiety and depression, and clients who have experienced sexual trauma. Recommendations and evidence-based treatment guidelines are clearly defined for each condition. Case reports developed from real-life cases are included in this section, offering readers a real-world context for the clinical content presented. The final section illustrates specific ways to integrate research into the educational and professional development of current and future massage therapists. It provides readers with the fundamental tools for a research-based approach in clinical practice, especially as it relates to special populations. A running glossary, chapter summaries, and critical thinking questions assist students in learning the content and act as self-study tools for practitioners. Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice offers both students and practitioners of massage therapy the most current evidence-based information, guidelines, and recommendations for the treatment of conditions often seen in massage therapy practice. This essential reference will assist practitioners in understanding the scientific literature and its application in enhancing the practice of this safe and effective health intervention.

Written by the Director of the world-renowned Touch Research Institutes, this book examines the practical applications of important massage therapy research findings. Each chapter of this comprehensive resource provides a clear and authoritative review of what is reliably known about the effects of touch for a variety of clinical conditions such as depression, pain management, movement problems, and functioning of the immune system. Coverage also includes the benefits of massage to specific populations such as pregnant women, neonates, infants, and adolescents. This book is suitable for massage therapists (including Shiatsu practitioners), aromatherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, physical therapists, and nurses. Provides a thorough yet concise review of recent research related to the importance of touch. Offers practical guidance to healthcare professionals whose work involves physical contact with patients.

This comprehensive resource covers a broad array of research strategies available to massage therapists to give them the tools they need to be knowledgeable readers of research literature, as well as active researchers. The primary focus of the book is on the quantitative aspect of research that encompasses the principal types of studies most extensively used in the various health care professions, specifically massage therapy. Extensive coverage is also given to the qualitative and integrative research categories that are progressively gaining recognition among researchers in various health science disciplines and professions. Accommodates the March 2003 mandate from the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA) that massage therapy schools incorporate into their curricula provisions to ensure a research literate profession. Examples and techniques for interpreting research guide practitioners and students to be knowledgeable readers of massage therapy research, allowing application to practice. Relies heavily on concept maps, flowcharts, tables, and illustrations and excerpts of published studies to augment the book's narrative development of topics by providing pictorial displays and summaries of the material. Literature-based and hypothetical research examples/illustrations from several manual therapy professions employing therapeutic massage make the material pertinent to real-life settings An introductory section at the beginning of each chapter reviews the material covered in the previous chapter and how it relates to the new material. Chapter coverage spans the quantitative, qualitative, and integrative research categories and affiliated research strategies and methods are considered in detail. Review/summary tables give an overview of the narrative development of topics. Boxes provide the essential features of a given topic. Relies on multiple examples of possible research scenarios and illustrative excerpts from the published research literature. Content is cross-referenced for use with the Massage Therapy Foundation's Massage Therapy Research Curriculum Kit to provide both instructors and students in the 6-, 15-, and 24-hour options/levels an extensively-developed resource in one place. Each chapter includes recommended web sites and software application packages for further information.

With this book’s streamlined, innovative approach, you’ll learn how to manage and assess medical information in order to determine massage contraindications.

This is a Pageburst digital textbook; the product description may vary from the print textbook. This comprehensive resource covers a broad array of research strategies available to massage therapists to give them the tools they need to be knowledgeable readers of research literature, as well as active researchers. The primary focus of the book is on the quantitative aspect of research that encompasses the principal types of studies most extensively used in the various health care professions, specifically massage therapy. Extensive coverage is also given to the qualitative and integrative research categories that are progressively gaining recognition among researchers in various health science disciplines and professions. Accommodates the March 2003 mandate from the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA) that massage therapy schools incorporate into their curricula provisions to ensure a research literate profession. Examples and techniques for interpreting research guide practitioners and students to be knowledgeable readers of massage therapy research, allowing application to practice. Relies heavily on concept maps, flowcharts, tables, and illustrations and excerpts of published studies to augment the book's narrative development of topics by providing pictorial displays and summaries of the material. Literature-based and hypothetical research examples/illustrations from several manual therapy professions employing therapeutic massage make the material pertinent to real-life settings An introductory section at the beginning of each chapter reviews the material covered in the previous chapter and how it relates to the new material. Chapter coverage spans the quantitative, qualitative, and integrative research categories and affiliated research strategies and methods are considered in detail. Review/summary tables give an overview of the narrative development of topics. Boxes provide the essential features of a given topic. Relies on multiple examples of possible research scenarios and illustrative excerpts from the published research literature. Content is cross-referenced for use with the Massage Therapy Foundation's Massage Therapy Research Curriculum Kit to provide both instructors and students in the 6-, 15-, and 24-hour options/levels an extensively-developed resource in one place. Each chapter includes recommended web sites and software application packages for further information.

Principally based on dissections of hundreds of un-embalmed human cadavers over the past decade, Functional Atlas of the Human Fascial System presents a new vision of the human fascial system using anatomical and histological photographs along with microscopic analysis and biomechanical evaluation. Prof. Carla Stecco – orthopaedic surgeon and professor of anatomy and sport activities – brings together the research of a multi-specialist team of researchers and clinicians consisting of anatomists, biomechanical engineers, physiotherapists, osteopaths and plastic surgeons. In this Atlas Prof. Stecco presents for the first time a global view of fasciae and the actual connections that describe the myofascial kinetic chains. These descriptions help to explain how fascia plays a part in myofascial dysfunction and disease as well as how it may alter muscle function and disturb proprioceptive input. Prof. Stecco also highlights the continuity of the fascial planes, explaining the function of the fasciae and their connection between muscles, nerves and blood vessels. This understanding will help guide the practitioner in selecting the proper technique for a specific fascial problem with a view to enhancing manual therapy methods. Functional Atlas of the Human Fascial System opens with the first chapter classifying connective tissue and explaining its composition in terms of percentages of fibres, cells and extracellular matrix. The second chapter goes on to describe the general characteristics of the superficial fascia from a macroscopic and microscopic point of view; while the third analyzes the deep fascia in the same manner. The subsequent five chapters describe the fasciae from a topographical perspective. In this part of the Atlas, common anatomical terminology is used throughout to refer to the various fasciae but it also stresses the continuity of fasciae between the different bodily regions. Over 300 unique photographs which show fascia on fresh (not embalmed) cadavers Demonstrates the composition, form and function of the fascial system Highlights the role of the deep fascia for proprioception and peripheral motor coordination Companion website – www.atlasfascial.com – with videos showing how fascia connects with ligaments

Bates College, Lewiston, ME. Text brings together the findings of some of the most respected researchers on the effectiveness of massage therapy. Four sections cover methods and massage, massage research on various conditions, massage across the lifespan, and massage and the workplace. (Product description).