The impact of massage therapy on function in pain populations—A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials: part I, patients experiencing pain in the general population
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PURPOSE: Pain is multi-dimensional and may be better addressed through a holistic, biopsychosocial approach. Massage therapy is commonly practiced among patients seeking pain management; however, its efficacy is unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis is the first to rigorously assess the quality of massage therapy research and evidence for its efficacy in treating pain, function-related and health-related quality of life outcomes across all pain populations. METHODS: Key databases were searched from inception through February 2014. Eligible randomized controlled trials were assessed for methodological quality using SIGN 50 Checklist. Meta-analysis was applied at the outcome level. A diverse steering committee interpreted the results to develop recommendations. RESULTS: Sixty high quality and seven low quality studies were included in the review. Results demonstrate massage therapy effectively treats pain compared to sham [standardized mean difference (SMD) = -.44], no treatment (SMD = -1.14), and active (SMD = -0.26) comparators. Compared to active comparators, massage therapy was also beneficial for treating anxiety (SMD = -0.57) and health-related quality of life (SMD = 0.14). CONCLUSION: Based on the evidence, massage therapy, compared to no treatment, should be strongly recommended as a pain management option. Massage therapy is weakly recommended for reducing pain, compared to other sham or active comparators, and improving mood and health-related quality of life, compared to other active comparators. Massage therapy safety, research challenges, how to address identified research gaps, and necessary next steps for implementing massage therapy as a viable pain management option are discussed.
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Reviews focused on massage therapy and spinal manipulation both reported that interventions had a positive effect on psychological outcomes including anxiety.
“The reviews that focused on massage therapy98 and spinal manipulation105 both reported that interventions had a positive effect on psychological outcomes including anxiety and that the quality of evidence was variable.”
From Impact of healthcare interventions on distress following acute musculoskeletal/orthopaedic injury: A scoping review of systematic reviews (2024) · cites this paper as [98]
In reviews focused on massage therapy and spinal manipulation, the quality of evidence was variable.
“The reviews that focused on massage therapy98 and spinal manipulation105 both reported that interventions had a positive effect on psychological outcomes including anxiety and that the quality of evidence was variable.”
From Impact of healthcare interventions on distress following acute musculoskeletal/orthopaedic injury: A scoping review of systematic reviews (2024) · cites this paper as [98]
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Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Dyer, N. L., Surdam, J., & Dusek, J. A. (2022) · Pain Medicine · doi:10.1093/pm/pnab151 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Sim, A., McNeilage, A. G., Gholamrezaei, A., Rebbeck, T., & Ashton-James, C. (2024) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2024-085778 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“One review found there was not enough high-quality data to draw conclusions about the effects of the Open access interventions on psychological outcomes.”
Background
- Authors
- Crawford, C., Boyd, C., Paat, C. F., Price, A., Xenakis, L., Yang, E., Zhang, W., & the Evidence for Massage Therapy (EMT) Working Group
- Affiliations
- Samueli Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Boyd, Courtney
- Venue
- Pain Medicine
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2016-05-10
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1353-1375
- ISSN
- 1526-2375 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-4637
- PMC
- PMC4925170
- OpenAlex
- W2380140620
- Cited by
- 178
- References
- 128
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 72 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7
- FWCI
- 1.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Pain Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Defense
- Samueli Institute
- Massage Therapy Foundation
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Myofascial pain diagnosis and treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Keywords
- massage, pain management, health-related quality of life, functions, anxiety, sham treatment, biopsychosocial model, treatment efficacy
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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