The Effects of Shiatsu on Lower Back Pain, from the Journal of Holistic Nursing

J Holist Nurs. 2001 Mar;19(1):57-70.

Brady LH, Henry K, Luth JF2nd, Casper-Bruett KK.

Drake University, USA.

Shiatsu, a specific type of massage, was used as an intervention in this study of 66 individuals complaining of lower back pain. Each individual was measured an state/trait anxiety and pain level before and after four shiatsu treatments. Each subject was then called 2 days following each treatment and asked to quantify the level of pain. Both pain and anxiety decreased significantly over time. Extraneous variables such as gender, age, gender of therapist, length of history with lower back pain, and medications taken for lowered back pain did not alter the significant results. There subjects would recommend shiatsu massage for others suffering from lower back pain and indicated the treatments decreased the major inconveniences they experienced with their lower back pain. PMID: 11847714 [PubMed- indexed for MEDLINE]

Pre Med. 2004 Jul;39(1):168-76.

A randomized controlled clinical trial for low back pain treated by acupressure and physical therapy.

Hsieh LL, Kuo CH, Yen MF, Chen TH.

Institute of Prevention Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Although acupressure has been reported to be effective in managing various types of pain, its efficacy in relieving pain associated with low back pain (LBP) remains unclear. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of acupressure with that of physical therapy in reducing low back pain. METHODS: A randomized controlled clinical trial in an orthopedic referral hospital in Taiwan was conducted between December 20, 2000, and March 2, 2001. A total of 146 participants with chronic low back pain were randomly assigned to the acupressure group(69) or the physical therapy group(77), each with different treatment technique. Self-appraised pain scores were appraised before treatment as baseline and after treatment as outcomes using the Chinese version of Short-Form Pain Questionnaire (SF-PQ). RESULTS: There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics among patients randomized into the two groups. The mean of posttreatment pain score after a 4-week treatment (2.28, SD = 2.62) in the acupressure group was significantly lower than that in the physical therapy group (5.05, SD = 5.11) (P = 0.0002). At the 6-month follow-up assessment, the mean pain score in the acupressure group (1.08, SD = 1.43) was significantly lower than that in the physical therapy group (3.15, SD = 3.62) (P = 0.0004). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that acupressure is another effective alternative medicine in reducing low back pain, although the standard operating procedures involved with acupressure treatment should be carefully assessed in the future. PMID: 15207999 [PubMed - in process]

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