Fractures, Osteoporosis
Conditions
Keywords
Bone Metabolism, Therapeutic Touch
Brief summary
This study will evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic touch in treating wrist fractures in women past menopause.
Detailed description
In the United States, the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) increased by approximately 25% between 1990 and 1997. The number of visits to CAM practitioners exceeded visits to primary care physicians by about 250 million in 1997. Energy medicine modalities, including therapeutic touch, healing touch, and reiki, are commonly utilized for conditions ranging from headache to cancer, yet understanding of the human energy field and how it may be used in healing is limited. This study will examine the effect of therapeutic touch on fracture healing in postmenopausal women. Women will be enrolled in the study within one week of a wrist fracture and will receive either therapeutic touch or a sham (placebo) treatment daily for 3 weeks. Assessments will include blood and urine analysis and measures of pain and function in the affected wrist.
Interventions
PROCEDURETherapeutic Touch
Sponsors
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
40 Years to 85 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion Criertia: * Postmenopausal * Wrist fracture within 1 week of study entry * Able to travel to research center for daily treatment
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed