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Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2022 Feb;46:101529.

A study of Reiki therapy on unpleasant symptoms in children with cerebral palsy

Lamara Love 1, Avery M Anderson 2, Victoria von Sadovszky 2, Julie Kusiak 3, Jodi Ford 4, Garey Noritz 3

1 Comprehensive Cerebral Palsy Program, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
2 Professional Development, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
3 Comprehensive Cerebral Palsy Program, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
4 The Ohio State University School of Nursing, Columbus, OH, USA.

Abstract

Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) commonly experience unpleasant symptoms such as pain, anger, and sadness. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study, guided by the Theory of Unpleasant Symptoms (TOUS), was to examine the practicality and impact of delivering Reiki Therapy (RT) in homes over an 8-week intervention phase to children with CP. Thirteen pediatric participants were recruited, ranging in age from 5 to 16 years. Reiki Therapy was administered by a Level 3 Reiki Therapist in the home for 8 consecutive weeks. Parents completed on-line questionnaires addressing their children's unpleasant symptoms. Hair cortisol was measured as an indicator of stress. Nearly all study procedures were completed by the participants, indicating that the methods are feasible for a larger study. Reiki Therapy significantly decreased pain while lying down (3.09 vs. 2.00; p = .002) but not while sitting (2.55 vs. 2.09; p = .40). Anger symptoms showed a trend towards improvement in the participants. These preliminary findings demonstrate that Reiki is a therapeutic modality worthy of further investigation in the CP pediatric population.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1744388121002280

Excerpts:

"Reiki therapy is a complementary health approach for the management of unpleasant symptoms [12] not yet explored in children and adolescents with CP. With origins in Eastern medicine, Reiki therapy is non-invasive and consists of trained practitioners moving their hands on or above a person in a pattern aimed at directing the person's energy fields [13]. The purpose of Reiki therapy is to facilitate the person's natural capacity for healing [13]. In a review of placebo-controlled studies examining the effectiveness of Reiki therapy in symptom management for acute and chronic conditions, McManus [12] found that over 60% of studies demonstrated Reiki therapy was more effective than placebo in activating the parasympathetic nervous system (evidenced by increasing heart rate variability and decreasing blood pressure and heart rate), reducing anxiety and depression, improving self-esteem and quality of life, and reducing pain in chronically ill patients. Reiki therapy has also been demonstrated as a safe intervention to relieve unpleasant symptoms in newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome [14] and in children with cancer undergoing stem cell transplantation [15].

"To date, Reiki therapy has not been explored in a population of children with CP. A pilot study by Ref. [16]; indicates that Reiki was feasible, acceptable, and well tolerated in children receiving palliative care in the home setting."

"This quasi-experimental study incorporated a convenience sampling approach to ascertain the feasibility of the methods for determination in a larger study."

"The sample consisted of 13 children and adolescents (7 female and 6 male) with CP and their families. The participants ranged in age from 5 to 16 years (M = 10.7; SD = 4.0). Eleven participants were partial- or full-time wheelchair users and 8 of the children were non-verbal."

"The dependent variable was unpleasant symptoms. This was operationalized through both a subjective measure and the physiological measurement of hair cortisol."

"1.3. Intervention
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health defines Reiki therapy as a complementary modality that uses a practitioner's hand placement, on or near the body, to facilitate the healing response of the person being treated [13]. This definition clarifies that the Reiki practitioner's role is passive, interpreting and responding to feedback from the recipient's body. Reiki therapy is understood to gently interface with the subtle energies of the human body, thereby engaging its natural healing ability (Shamini et al., 2015).

"The limited number of pediatric studies utilizing Reiki therapy exhibits a wide variation in both session length and in the number of sessions provided (See Table 2). Prior published studies used an intervention ranging from a 20–30-min single session [23] to an intervention with 12 Reiki sessions of 30 min each [15]. The specific treatment hand positions are often not clearly identified.

"One Level 3 trained Reiki practitioner, with twenty years of experience in both hospital and community settings, provided all the RT treatments for this study. The practitioner had also previously worked with both adults and children with neurological conditions, including CP. The treatments were given one week apart for 8 weeks. For this study, the traditional Usui Reiki protocol of 12 hand positions [25,26] was implemented, including the technique of briefly moving hands over the body from head to toe at the beginning and end of the session. The standardized hand placement protocol was around the head area, then over the lower throat, heart center, solar plexus, lower torso, knees, and soles of the feet. Placement on the arms was included due to the impact of cerebral palsy on the limbs. For those children who non-verbally indicated that initiating Reiki at the head felt too intense, the direction of treatment was reversed.

"With few pediatric studies available, the most effectual session length of a Reiki treatment for children has yet to be established. For this study, the decision was made to record the length of each session as elicited by the therapeutic response of each child, gathering data to inform future pediatric studies. The average session length per individual child ranged from 29 to 43 min. The average session length across all 104 Reiki therapy sessions was 38 min. Table 3 shows the average time per session and reversed protocol."

"RT was given in the home by the Therapist for a total of 8 sessions over 8 weeks. The Therapist gave the therapy to children in a quiet room, away from the rest of the family, when possible, to reduce distractions."

"The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the feasibility – including the applicability and practicality -- of RT for children with CP in their homes over an 8-week intervention phase. The results provide strong support for feasibility of RT. All participants were retained through the entirety of the intervention period and 90% or more of subjects had completion of all measures including hair cortisol. This study is the first to explore RT in a population of children with CP and was successful in demonstrating feasibility and sustainability of the proposed methods. Moreover, RT was well-received, and parents reported that RT was helpful and resulted in their child feeling relaxed and calm. On average, parents reported the desire for RT as a regular and in-home therapy option. These findings are encouraging for further research around the implementation of this noninvasive, safe, complementary therapy for children with CP, but availability of qualified Reiki practitioners and Reiki masters as well as the cost of RT may be an impediment to wider adoption."

"Future research should incorporate a randomized control design to better capture the benefits of RT in comparison to care as usual, placebo or other complementary therapies.

"Funding
The study was funded through the institution's Cerebral Palsy Foundation Fund and approved through the Nationwide Children's Hospital Institutional Review Board (FWA00002860)."

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Comments:

As usual, there is no mention of the fact that reiki is inconsistent with scientific knowledge, or even that it is controversial. There is no evidence for the so-called "subtle energies" that are being "interfaced" with.

As the authors admit in their discussion of further research, there was no control for placebo effects. The sentence "Future research should incorporate a randomized control design to better capture the benefits of RT in comparison to care as usual, placebo or other complementary therapies" is inappropriate since without a control group there is no evidence of benefits to "better capture."

Going back to the abstract, the sentence "These preliminary findings demonstrate that Reiki is a therapeutic modality worthy of further investigation in the CP pediatric population" is inappropriate. Since the prior probability of Reiki being useful is zero, and the studies had no controls, it was not demonstrated that Reiki is worthy of further investigation.

The Cerebral Palsy Foundation should not be funding pseudoscience like this.