a community of practitioners

RESEARCHING THE RESEARCH - what are the challenges, obstacles and questions?

I'm throwing this thread up as a method of us helping one another.

I'm sure many of us are like me and new to the whole area of research literacy. In the most recent edition of Massage Today Ruth Werner addresses research, it's importance is also addresses the need for research literacy. She also provides some good links which every therapist should consider bookmarking. This is one area in which we can be proactive in educating ourselves.

In another thread some starting points were given, and so I will put them on here again:

Here is a good intro article on research literacy and here is another
Other articles can be found here

This is the anatomy of a research article

For a starter book on understanding research consider:
Making Sense of Research by Martha Brown Menard

and if you want to get more into the detail of research methodology, then:
Research Methods for Massage and Holistic Therapies by Glenn Hymel

So lets help each other get our heads around finding, interpreting and critiquing the research.

Throw your questions up on this thread and hopefully the more research "literate" amongst us will help out!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robin Byler Thomas on December 30, 2009 at 9:53pm

Yea, it would be an interesting trial and you did find one study to back you up.

I'd just be concerned about overwhelming their systems.

Rick Britton said:

thanks

listen i really dont think that relaxation type massage is the answer and that is not what i am proposing at all...

deep, genuine and long lasting release of the tissues thereby reducing the squeeze on the blood vessel walls is my model and what I hope to sell as a therapy.

I use the model of the garden hose... squeeze the open end of the hose as the water comes out and it will spurt out under pressure... release the squeeze on the exit of the hose and the water flows more slowly...

if this in fact applicable to blood in blood vessels then reducing restriction in the tissue may well permanently reduce blood pressure.

Would love to do the case study myself to see if it works for real...

Christopher A. Moyer said:
Hi Rick.
Robin gave you some great ways to find studies. Add google scholar to your resources, too - it's really quite good, and in some cases it will link you directly to the study you want.
Concerning MT and blood pressure, I am really interested in your theory as to how it might reduce blood pressure. That's interesting and makes sense; I wonder if that is in fact how it might be working.

I generally want to avoid directing folks to my own studies on here, but you might be interested in the results of MT on BP that we found in our 2004 study, which you can access here.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Jeffrey on December 31, 2009 at 6:47am

Hi Rick this is probably a problem the world over when doing TP work. = Too much pressure too quickly, its taken me years to desist from dominating the tissues (via too much pressure ) to following the melt. This takes an extreme amount of patience that 90% of MTs either don't have or are simply not connecting with in the clients tissues.
A technique that is still widely used is on locating a TP the client is asked to take a deep breath in and as they breathe out pressure is rapidely applied to the TP ??? fine for sports people maybe but possibly harmfull to those with chronic conditions.

So in reaching beyond relaxation massage and the temporary effects (good though they are ) and using techniques that deliver improvements that last much longer, maybe the real difficulty is in finding practitioners that not only have exellent palpation skills but also the patience to wait long enough to take the technique to its maximum potential ?

I have always found Dr T Field at the touch research institute very helpfull when trying to find specific research and her thoughts on any research you may want to design yourself , in my case on back pain and miscarriage reduction in otherwise healthy females.

I would be very interested in specific results acheived when massage techniques are applied to the neck muscles for blood pressure reduction. I have only read press reports of neck muscle involvement in BP controll.

Rick Britton said:

i believe the trigger point and sports massage didnt work for several reasons.

I have always found, in the UK at least, that most practitioners apply far too much pressure and cause far too much pain. It is my experience that this kind of work is less effective at releasing tissue permanently.

I am not at all surprised that light touch work was more effective. I practice light touch in all my work and i always find that much better in achieving genuine release and unwinding

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Permalink Reply by Christopher A. Moyer on December 31, 2009 at 9:35am

thanks

listen i really dont think that relaxation type massage is the answer and that is not what i am proposing at all...

Sure, no problem. I'm not advocating any particular approach.

Would love to do the case study myself to see if it works for real...

That's a good research idea.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher A. Moyer on December 31, 2009 at 9:35am

Robin Byler Thomas said:

CAM, where've you been?

Are you going to check out my attachments on separation trials and participant studies?

If I can find the time...

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Permalink Reply by Robin Byler Thomas on December 31, 2009 at 12:09pm

Rick you may be interested in reading the entire study regarding deep tissue massage effect on hypertension so I've attached it.

The study was good in discussing the physiology behind MT for hypertension but very poor in decribing the deep tissue massage (DTM) work. All it said was they used a LMT with 22 years of experience and DTM. As we've discussed that could mean anything.

You should do this for the case practitioner report. Start keeping good notes on a client with specific details of every method you employ. You could contact Alison Pittas for details:apittas@massagetherapyfoundation.org

Here's the whole study article:

Attachments:

BP-Deep Tissue MT.pdf, 332 KB

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Jeffrey on December 31, 2009 at 12:37pm

Hi Robin, thanks for the link v interesting article.....shame the MTs involved aren't listed at the top of the article, maybe they should be ? in terms of tracing and establishing the DTM methods used. As this artical isn't that old is it worth asking if they have their details on record somewhere ?

Robin Byler Thomas said:

Rick you may be interested in reading the entire study regarding deep tissue massage effect on hypertension so I've attached it.

The study was good in discussing the physiology behind MT for hypertension but very poor in decribing the deep tissue massage (DTM) work. All it said was they used a LMT with 22 years of experience and DTM. As we've discussed that could mean anything.

You should do this for the case practitioner report. Start keeping good notes on a client with specific details of every method you employ. You could contact Alison Pittas for details:apittas@massagetherapyfoundation.org

Here's the whole study article:

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Permalink Reply by Robin Byler Thomas on December 31, 2009 at 2:02pm

Hi Stephen,

Yes, if you'd like to follow up on it, that would be great. The article does list JAN SWINFORD as one of the authors and says she is from Lindsay’s Day Salon & Day Spa, Lubbock, TX (check out the superscript (2) in the list of authors). She's is probably the MT involved.

Stephen Jeffrey said:

Hi Robin, thanks for the link v interesting article.....shame the MTs involved aren't listed at the top of the article, maybe they should be ? in terms of tracing and establishing the DTM methods used. As this artical isn't that old is it worth asking if they have their details on record somewhere ?

Robin Byler Thomas said:
Rick you may be interested in reading the entire study regarding deep tissue massage effect on hypertension so I've attached it.

The study was good in discussing the physiology behind MT for hypertension but very poor in decribing the deep tissue massage (DTM) work. All it said was they used a LMT with 22 years of experience and DTM. As we've discussed that could mean anything.

You should do this for the case practitioner report. Start keeping good notes on a client with specific details of every method you employ. You could contact Alison Pittas for details:apittas@massagetherapyfoundation.org

Here's the whole study article:

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Jeffrey on December 31, 2009 at 2:32pm

Ahhhaa Robin, a slueth I nay shall be, lol.

But google do come to the rescue and there she be !

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Permalink Reply by Christopher A. Moyer on December 31, 2009 at 2:59pm

You might begin by visiting the nearest university library and checking out their books on case study research. There are plenty out there:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_3_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&f...

The MTF used to have guidelines for their contest posted, but it looks like they might be in the act of revising them, as it says they will be posted again in March:

http://www.massagetherapyfoundation.org/practitionercontest.html

PM me if you have specific questions, and I'll try to help.

Rick Britton said:

Yes I believe it would be a good research project.

Frankly I have no idea how to get started though so any advice would be appreciated

Christopher A. Moyer said:
thanks

listen i really dont think that relaxation type massage is the answer and that is not what i am proposing at all...

Sure, no problem. I'm not advocating any particular approach.

Would love to do the case study myself to see if it works for real...

That's a good research idea.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Robin Byler Thomas on January 2, 2010 at 8:08pm

I just read a very good, easy to read study, out of New Zealand on the Culture of MT. This was a qualitative design using telephone focus group participants enlisted, after contacting over 600 MT's from the yellow pages, from existing clients. The results: "six valued elements of the massage encounter (time for care and personal attention, engaging and competent therapist, trust partnership, holism and empowerment, effective touch and enhancing relaxation), four modulators (comfort, contact, connection and caring) and two themes relating to adding experiential value (enjoyment, escapism) characterize the massage therapy culture."

Here's the abstract:

The PDF is attached below for those who can get it.

I also read Christopher's article on Attitudes Towards Massage in which he devised a new tool called the ATOM scale. This was after surveying 285 undergrads. Another good read that shows MT in the mainstream.

Here's the abstract:

Below is the atttachment.

Attachments: