SynthesisJournal of human hypertension2015
Massage therapy for essential hypertension: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of human hypertension, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- An updated network meta-analysis of non-pharmacological interventions for primary hypertension in adults: insights from recent studies.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Blood-Letting Therapy for Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Reducing effect of aerobic exercise on blood pressure of essential hypertensive patients: A meta-analysis.Medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of traditional Chinese herbal formula Zhen Wu Decoction for the treatment of hypertension.BMJ open · 2015Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Qigong for hypertension: a systematic review.Medicine · 2015Pooled it
- Effect of Massage Therapy on the Circulatory System: A Literature Review.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2026Article
- The mechanisms of manual therapy: A living review of systematic, narrative, and scoping reviews.PloS one · 2025Article
- Use of Five Complementary Health Modalities Relevant to Lifestyle Medicine: A 2020 Survey of Northern California Adults Aged 35-79 years.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2024Article
- Effect of Lavender Oil Leg Massage on Physical, Cognitive, and Psychological Variables of Patients with Hypertension: A Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2024Article
- Prevalence, determinants and outcomes of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine use for hypertension among low-income households in Malaysia and the Philippines.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2022Article
- Use of massage therapy by mid-aged and older Australian women.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2022Article
- The Challenges and Perspectives of the Integration Between Virtual and Augmented Reality and Manual Therapies.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Review
- Wanted: long term studies on massage therapy in hypertension.Journal of human hypertension · 2020Article
- Evaluation of changes in left ventricular structure and function in hypertensive patients with coronary artery disease after PCI using real-time three-dimensional echocardiography.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2018Article
- Long-term effect of massage therapy on blood pressure in prehypertensive women.Journal of education and health promotion · 2018Article
- Massage therapy research review.Complementary therapies in clinical practice · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Massage, an ancient Chinese healing art, is widely practiced for symptom relief in hypertensive patients with anxiety, depression, headache, vertigo, chronic pain in neck, shoulder and back. A large number of case series and clinical trials have been published. However, it is still unclear whether massage can be recommended as an effective therapy for essential hypertension (EH). We estimated the current clinical evidence of massage for EH. Articles published before 10 December 2013 were searched using Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Wanfang data and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure. Randomized controlled trials comparing massage with any type of control intervention were included. Trials testing massage combined with antihypertensive drugs versus antihypertensive drugs were included as well. Meta-analysis was performed on the effects on blood pressure (BP). Twenty-four articles involving 1962 patients with EH were selected. Methodological quality of most trials was evaluated as generally low. Meta-analyses demonstrated that massage combined with antihypertensive drugs may be more effective than antihypertensive drugs alone in lowering both systolic BP (SBP; mean difference (MD): -6.92 (-10.05, -3.80); P<0.0001) and diastolic BP (MD: -3.63 (-6.18, -1.09); P=0.005); massage appears beneficial for reducing SBP (MD: -3.47 (-5.39, -1.56); P=0.0004) for hypertensive patients as compared with antihypertensive drugs. Safety of massage is still unclear. There is some encouraging evidence of massage for EH. However, because of poor methodological quality, the evidence remains weak. Rigorously designed trials are needed to validate the use of massage in future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.