The Effect of Therapeutic Massage on the Pain of Cancer Patients (Published)
As people with cancer disease, beyond the side effects of treatments, uncertainties regarding the future, suffering, physical pain, anxiety, depression, loss of control and autonomy. The nurse must interact with how people, inserted in their sociocultural context, who are in a situation of health / illness transition. The intervention instituted in the present work was a therapeutic massage, due to the help to restore the physical and psychic balance. The application of massage and the maintenance of hygiene care and comfort and development, as well as the application of the complementary practice to the strategy of self-care and harmonization. We designed a quasi-experimental study whose objective is to evaluate the effect of therapeutic massage on mental health in a sample of 31 cancer patients, 16 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group. The selection criteria of this study considered research on this theme, so that we can have models of comparison of results. Therefore, the inclusion criteria were patients aged between 18 and 65 years old, included in an outpatient clinic, with a medical diagnosis of cancer and with a cognitive ability to self-fill the questionnaires. For this the Mini Mental State Examination Scale was applied. There are some pathologies, signs and symptoms in which this intervention is contraindicated, namely: Patients with circulatory problems, varicose veins; inflammatory or fungal processes; fever or hyperthermia; on treatment with chemotherapy; post-surgery, post-radiotherapy, post-stroke or post-myocardial infarction; bone pathology (fractures, recent torsion); hypertension; hemophiliacs; localized contagious or dermatological diseases. For the operation of the independent variable, a therapeutic massage protocol recommended by Tiffany Field and Hernandez-Reif was used, and to evaluate the dependent variable, we used the Brief Pain Inventory, which revealed good internal consistency. This study revealed a beneficial effect of therapeutic massage with regard to pain, we showed a significant improvement in pain intensity (p <0.001) and pain interference (p <0.001). We intend with this study not only that health professionals use this intervention, as well as that these results encourage the scientific community, in the conduct of future research in this pathology and in other chronic pathologies.
Keywords: Cancer, Massage, Mental Health, Pain, Therapeutic Massage