Trial Information

Efficacy of Massage at the End of Life

Relieving physical and emotional symptoms is a key component of end-of-life care. Despite
care, terminally ill patients are still significantly burdened by unrelieved symptoms.
Therapies that have potential to alleviate these symptoms deserve thorough investigation.

This study will last 3 weeks. Participants in this study will be randomly assigned to
receive six sessions of either moving or nonmoving touch therapy, in addition to usual
hospice care, for 2 weeks. Moving touch therapy consists of massage therapy in which a
trained therapist continually touches a person's body. The nonmoving touch therapy will be
conducted by volunteers who have no previous experience in massage. Participants in this
group will have a volunteer rub specific body parts for 3-minute intervals. Because current
evidence suggests that thoughts of healing may influence the effectiveness of touch therapy,
volunteers in the nonmoving therapy group will distract their minds to avoid thinking of
healing processes. In both groups, the person administering the touch therapy will note all
interruptions during a session, including talk, music, and television. Interviews about
medication use, pain, and quality of life will be used to assess participants; these
interviews will be conducted at study start, immediately before and after each therapy
session, and at Weeks 1, 2, and 3.