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Mental Illness and Massage
As some of you know, my daughter has been diagnosed with a mental illness. so I have spent a lot of time recently in and out of psychiatric facilities listening to many stories of other parents and what their children are going through. I can't help but think that massage would be a great benefit to some of these mental illnesses and yet I have not heard one doctor or counselor offer it up as part of a treatment program.
is there any research out there regarding the benefits of massage for those with mental illnesses?
is there any research out there regarding the benefits of massage for those with mental illnesses?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Christopher A. Moyer on
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Interesting topic.
The answer depends a lot on what mental illnesses, or mental disorders, we are talking about. There is a reasonably body of research on MT applied to anxiety and depression. There is much less or in most cases no research on MT applied to more severe conditions such as dissociative disorders, eating disorders, psychoses, and such.
Do you have a specific disorder, or disorder category, in mind?
-CM
P.S. Best wishes to your daughter and to your family.
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Permalink Reply by Lisa on
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Thanks Chris.
Well my daughter (who btw...will not let me go near her for a massage...go figure) was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. but some of the other ones where i think massage could be beneficial are bipolar and Asperger syndrome, just to name a couple.
as i sat there listening to parents talk about their child's disorder and the characteristics that went along with them, all I kept thinking was how massage stimulates the parasympathetic response which could help in the management of some of the characteristics of anger and social disfunctions that are prevalent in these types of disorders.
thoughts?
Christopher A. Moyer said:Interesting topic.
The answer depends a lot on what mental illnesses, or mental disorders, we are talking about. There is a reasonably body of research on MT applied to anxiety and depression. There is much less or in most cases no research on MT applied to more severe conditions such as dissociative disorders, eating disorders, psychoses, and such.
Do you have a specific disorder, or disorder category, in mind?
-CM
P.S. Best wishes to your daughter and to your family.
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Permalink Reply by Robin Byler Thomas on
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Hi Lisa,
Sorry to hear about your troubles; I have a couple clients going through this with their teens.
There are two reviews and one study, I'm aware of, that have shown the effectiveness of MT for anger. One in particular, you may find interesting, was a study done by T. Fields and looked at MT for violence, agressive behavior, and anger in teens.
Another, by Ernst, reviewed several studies looking at the effectiveness of MT for the anger cancer patients go through.
The third study was MT for tension headaches and showed MT to be effective for the associated anger.
The studies are attached below. - Attachments:
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Lisa -
How old is your daughter? I ask because there are diagnostic issues when it comes to diagnosing BPD in a young person.
I try to follow research at the intersection of massage therapy and psychology very closely, and I know of no massage therapy research that has been concerned with any of the personality disorders.
Robin supplied some studies concerned with anger, but I must question the relevance here. There is a lot more to BPD than anger. Further, I would add that Field's conclusions on MT and anger might not be widely endorsed (e.g., Beider and I reached much different conclusions on the effects of MT in pediatric samples even when examining much of the same data; especially notable is our very different conclusion regarding MT and hostility - see http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/4/1/23 for details).
Finally, and as you probably know or are finding out, BPD presents special difficulties for anyone who is in a position to ally with and help the patient. Few MTs are going to have a solid background regarding BPD, and that is not at all a knock on MTs; personality disorders are not a part of their training, and they are also the most difficult disorders to learn to work with for mental health practitioners.
If a person with BPD is genuinely interested in trying MT for reduction of anxiety or promoting overall well-being, I think it could be fine to proceed. But I would not attempt to persuade such a person if they were unsure, nor would I expect MT to have specific beneficial effects for BPD.
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I was actually responding to Lisa statement below, in which I believe she was referring to MT for bipolar and Asperger syndrome.
as i sat there listening to parents talk about their child's disorder and the characteristics that went along with them, all I kept thinking was how massage stimulates the parasympathetic response which could help in the management of some of the characteristics of anger and social disfunctions that are prevalent in these types of disorders.
Christopher A. Moyer said:Lisa -
How old is your daughter? I ask because there are diagnostic issues when it comes to diagnosing BPD in a young person.
I try to follow research at the intersection of massage therapy and psychology very closely, and I know of no massage therapy research that has been concerned with any of the personality disorders.
Robin supplied some studies concerned with anger, but I must question the relevance here. There is a lot more to BPD than anger. Further, I would add that Field's conclusions on MT and anger might not be widely endorsed (e.g., Beider and I reached much different conclusions on the effects of MT in pediatric samples even when examining much of the same data; especially notable is our very different conclusion regarding MT and hostility - see http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/4/1/23 for details).
Finally, and as you probably know or are finding out, BPD presents special difficulties for anyone who is in a position to ally with and help the patient. Few MTs are going to have a solid background regarding BPD, and that is not at all a knock on MTs; personality disorders are not a part of their training, and they are also the most difficult disorders to learn to work with for mental health practitioners.
If a person with BPD is genuinely interested in trying MT for reduction of anxiety or promoting overall well-being, I think it could be fine to proceed. But I would not attempt to persuade such a person if they were unsure, nor would I expect MT to have specific beneficial effects for BPD.
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I was actually responding to Lisa statement below, in which I believe she was referring to MT for bipolar and Asperger syndrome.
Thanks Robin. Sorry I missed that.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Menehan on
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I looked through our research reports and found these studies that looked at massage for mental health. There are many other studies that look at massage's effect on depression and anxiety; go to www.massagemag.com, scroll down and click on "Research" (on the left-hand side of the page).
Qigong Massage Reduces Severity of Autism
http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=8775&catid=2...
Aromatherapy Eases Agitation in Severe Dementia
http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=5383&catid=2...
Massage Therapy Benefits Depressed Pregnant Women and Newborns
http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=8776&catid=2...
Therapeutic Touch Eases Agitation in People with Alzheimer's
http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=5440&catid=2...
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Permalink Reply by Jeanne Riley on
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Hi Lisa,
Have you ever looked into CranioSacral Therapy?
The experience I had with my son is one of the things that led me to massage therapy and eventually to CranioSacral therapy. My son was diagnosed at 3 with Sensory Processing Disorder. We dealt with his condition for years and tried many therapy options and were told he would never be cured but at best learn to adapt. Then one of the occupational therapists working him tried a series of CranioSacral treatments (which she at the time referred to as massage - whole other long story.) Within a very short time, after years of working with an angry, frustrated, hurting child he was completely better and happy, comfortable, loving and peaceful. He is 13 now and people have warned that the hormones of this age could cause a relapse, but so far so good.
In the years since I've talked with so many parents of children diagnosed with autism, aspergers, ADHD and bi-polar disorder and honestly they share so many symptoms that I wonder about the diagnosis and believe in large part diagnosis has more to do with which dr you find and what he/she has the most experience with or what the popular diagnosis of the day happens to be. Neuro-typical vs non-typical seams to be a favorite term popping up on parent sites.
There are several articles that you might find interesting and which can be found at http://www.upledger.com/content.asp?id=76&mid=2. I think the second artlcle listed, CranioSacral Therapy: Helping Improve Brain Function might be very interesting to you.
Good luck to you and your family.
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