The Effect of Massage Therapy for Reducing Pain, Anxiety, and Depression in Oncology Patients: A Review

Abstract

Introduction: Massage therapy (MT) was reported in the literatures to be effective in regard to reduce symptoms of pain, anxiety, and depression among patients with cancer. Furthermore; it is one of the most frequently used complementary treatments. Nursing practice had major concern; it is currently not clearly illustrating the influence and effectiveness of this method in patients with cancer.Purpose: To identify the effectiveness of MT in the management of pain, anxiety and depression among patients with cancer. Method: Search different internet data bases including: Using “pubmed,” “science direct,” “highwire,” and “scientific Google” database.Sample: 11 articles published from 2000 to 2010 were selected and formed the basis for this review. Mainly articles be published in nursing journals. Studies included in this review focused on the Use of Massage Therapy for Reducing Pain, Anxiety, and Depression in Oncology Patients.Result: Future studies should deal with different kinds of massage therapy in order to be able to provide solid data for nursing practice within the vulnerable group of terminal oncology patients. Furthermore, uniform interventions, assessment instruments, and designs should be used for collecting the results to enable comparability.Conclusion: Massage therapy is to be considered a cost-efficient, noninvasive intervention positively influencing and contributing to the reduction of pain, anxiety, and depression in seriously ill patients with cancer.Recommendations: To start training the staff nurses about MT, and to include this intervention in their practice