Complementary Pain Relief

By James Keough

A small pilot study at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center seems to prove the clinical observation that massage and acupuncture can decrease postoperative pain and depression in cancer patients. The study used a combination of Swedish massage for soft tissue and muscles, shiatsu foot massage, and traditional Chinese acupuncture to complement half the patients’ standard care during the first two days after cancer surgery. The researchers found that those treatments “resulted in decreased pain and depressive mood ... when compared with usual care alone.” Interestingly, not all of the cancers showed the same improvement: The complementary treatments worked best after surgery for prostate, testicular, gastrointestinal, and gynecological cancers.