The Reciprocal Effect on the Subject and Therapist by the Abdominal Therapeutic Touch / 日本補完代替医療学会誌

ABSTRACT

The therapeutic touch therapists would recognize the physical variability of themselves, mainly on the increase fever of their palms, and the continuous responses of the physical variability of the patients, such as the stable breath, the decreasing respiration, the fever of the touched parts, through their daily therapy processes. But there is actually little study that would evaluate the therapeutic touch therapy effect between the therapists and the subjects.Previous studies have reported that the effects on the subjects, but these authors did not discuss about the therapists and the interactions between the therapists and subjects. Therefore, we examined to measure the continuous physical variability both of the therapist and the subjects, the same time and parts, before and after the abdominal therapeutic touch. And we intended to clarify the relationship and the interaction between the therapist and the subjects.We enrolled the female and male therapists, and each of them performed the therapeutic touch to six subjects. Each of the test was separated to three parts, before therapy (30min), therapy (10min) and after therapy (10min) period. We designed that the therapeutic touch therapy part of the subjects was on the abdomen, there would be considered empirically the sensitive point. The subjects were asked to rest supine and the measurement were the electrocardiogram R-R interval and the epidermal temperatures of the four Meridian points (ST9, HT7, CV7, LR3). The therapist was sitting on chair beside the subject during the experiment and the measurements were carried out the same time and method as the subjects.The results showed that the abdominal therapeutic touch (1) decrease the R-R interval of the therapist, that would indicate to increase the sympathetic activity, (2) increase the R-R interval of the subject, that would indicate to increase the parasympathetic activity, (3) increase the epidermal temperature of therapeutic touch related parts of the therapist, HT7, CV7, and ST9, (4) increase the epidermal temperature of therapeutic touch related parts of the subject, CV7 and LR3. That is to say that the R-R interval variability of the therapist against the subject were inverse, and according to the abdominal therapeutic touch process, the epidermal temperature of the upper regions, above the abdomen, neck and wrist belong to the therapist would increase, while these of under regions, below the abdomen and the instep belong to subjects would increase. More detail, during the experiments, both of the therapist totally showed the similar therapeutic touch effects, but also suggested the characteristics of their performance to the subjects.Under these designed experiments, especially the same time continuous measurement of the variability, both of the therapist and the subjects, we could reveal that the rapid interaction and the dynamic relationship between the therapist and the subjects.