Came across this research

Encouraging Reviews of Biofield Therapies
02/11/2009

Evidence is emerging that therapies involving subtle energies to facilitate healing are very effective. Biofield therapies as they are known are part of the field of complimentary treatments and are proving more effective at lowering anxiety levels in hospitalised patients and reducing agitation in dementia patients than conventional treatments are currently achieving. Long term results are yet to be determined

Some of the more popular biofield practices include Reiki, Healing Touch and Therapeutic Touch despite the fact that they have not been scientifically researched a great deal. They do however come from very ancient traditions that were used over the centuries to heal mental as well as physical health conditions.

The review was conducted by Dr. Paul Mills from the University of California’s Department of Psychiatry and Dr. Shamini Jain, from Cancer Prevention and Control Research, UCLA Division. They reviewed 66 clinical studies that had been conducted covering a variety of patient conditions. They concluded that most of the studies were of reasonable scientific quality with strong evidence that pain reduction in non hospitalised people was effective and with moderately strong evidence that pain was reduced in hospitalised patients

The authors wrote that “In order to better inform patients of the potential benefits or non-benefits of these biofield-based interventions, clinicians and scientists within behavioural medicine should familiarize themselves with current theory, practice and research of such techniques.” They also recommended that further studies should be conducted.

The review paper is to be published in the online International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.