Table 4e. Biofield studies conducted with cardiovascular patients, in order of total quality ratings (highest to lowest). No problematic studies noted. (HT = Healing Touch, TT = Therapeutic Touch, TAU= Treatment as Usual, STAI = State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, POMS = Profile of Mood States, VAS = Visual Analog Scale)
Study Reference / Patient Population (N, gender, ethnicity) / Intervention(s)(duration, design) / Biomarkers/ functional measures
examined / Psych and other outcome variables / Results / Study +/- / Comments
(Beutler et al., 1988) / 115 Hypertensive patients / B/wn Ss design
Laying-on of hands(LOOH) (n = 40)
Paranormal distance healing (n = 37)
No healing (n = 38)
One 20-min session per week for 15 weeks
12 “well known healers” from Dutch healing society used; exact experience unclear / SBP and DBP / general wellbeing / Time effect (all groups showed reduction in SBP and DBP over 15 weeks)
Sig dif bwn groups on successive reduction of DBP; distance healing showed consistently reduced DBP compared to control; however paired tests were not significant
Significant group effect on well-being; LOOH group showed greatest increase in well-being
Patients in LOOH group showed significant within-ss increases in DBP after healing sessions / + use of covariates
+ alpha control
- no info on reliability/validity of well-being scale
- only 84 patients completed wellbeing scale / authors conclude DBP increase and increase in wellbeing in LOOH group due to psychological factors, and decrease of BP in all 3 groups perhaps due to overall placebo effect or seasonal factors
(Quinn, 1989) / 145 cardiac patients awaiting open-heart surgery (male = 115, female = 38; mean age 60; mostly Caucasian) / B/wn Ss design
TT
Mock TT
No treatment control
PI administered one 5-min TT intervention and mock intervention / BP and Heart Rate / STAI / No significant differences between groups on STAI scores, SBP or HR
TT group showed significantly decreased DBP at post-test compared to no-treatment control / + standard control
+ placebo control
+ reliable/valid measures
+ assessment of covariates
-only one practitioner used / patients were told that study focus was on observing how nurses use their hands to assess discomfort
(Quinn, 1984) / 60 hospitalized cardiovascular patients; 37 male, 23 female; mean age 59 / B/wn Ss design
TT (n not reported)
Mock TT (n not reported)
One 5-min session
TT conducted by one of 4 nurses with at least 4 years experience; mock TT conducted by 3 TT-naive nurses / none / STAI / Significant difference between TT and mimic TT group on pre-post test STAI partial correlations / + control group
+assessed equality of potential covariates between groups
- only one outcome measure used / 1st published study to use mimic TT intervention; tested for blindness of naïve observers to TT vs. mimic TT
(Seskevich et al., 2004) / 150 coronary patients with unstable symptoms awaiting percutaneous interventions (male = 149, female = 1; mean age = 64; ethnicity not reported) / B/wn Ss design
Control (TAU) (n = 30)
Stress management (n = 23); Guided Imagery (n = 24); Intercessory prayer (n = 19); HT (n = 24) - 19 practitioners, 1 day of formal training / none / VAS scales for happiness, calmness, hopefulness, satisfaction, worry, sadness, upset, and shortness of breath / HT, guided imagery, and stress management all showed significantly decreased VAS-rated worry post-intervention compared to control
No other significant differences between groups / + control group
+ multiple comparison groups
+ clear statistical strategy
+Bonferroni corrections for multiple tests / Unclear how experienced practitioners were before 1 day training