Trial reportThe Journal of clinical psychiatry2016
Acute Swedish Massage Monotherapy Successfully Remediates Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Proof-of-Concept, Randomized Controlled Study.
Trial report in The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01337713 (Efficacy of Massage and Light Touch Therapy for the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Efficacy of Massage and Light Touch Therapy for the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Effect of aromatherapy massage with lavender essential oil on sleep quality, pain, and mental and psychiatric disorders among breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: a randomized controlled trial.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Trial
- A preliminary descriptive report of the longevity of the effects of Swedish Massage therapy for subjects with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.Journal of bodywork and movement therapies · 2023Trial
- Six versus twelve weeks of Swedish massage therapy for generalized anxiety disorder: Preliminary findings.Complementary therapies in medicine · 2021Trial
- Model structure for protocol adherence utilizing a manualized therapeutic massage intervention.Journal of complementary & integrative medicine · 2018Trial
- Massage therapy decreases cancer-related fatigue: Results from a randomized early phase trial.Cancer · 2018Trial
- The Effects of Massage Therapy on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Report.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2025Article
- Untouched: understanding the role of touch in obsessive-compulsive disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- The Multisystem effects of Long COVID Syndrome and Potential Benefits of Massage Therapy in Long COVID Care.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2024Article
- Touch medicine: bridging the gap between recent insights from touch research and clinical medicine and its special significance for the treatment of affective disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Brief Myofascial Intervention Modulates Visual Event-Related Potential Response to Emotional Photographic Contents: A Pilot Study.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Optical Measurements of the Skin Surface to Infer Bilateral Distinctions in Myofascial Tissue Stiffness.World Haptics Conference. World Haptics Conference · 2023Article
- Applying an osteopathic intervention to improve mild to moderate mental health symptoms: a mixed-methods feasibility study protocol.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Depression severity is associated with reduced pleasantness of observed social touch and fewer current intimate touch experiences.PloS one · 2023Article
- How childhood maltreatment alters perception and cognition - the predictive processing account of borderline personality disorder.Psychological medicine · 2022Review
- Anxiety and Stress-Related Disorders.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2021Article
- Mind-Body Interventions for Anxiety Disorders: A Review of the Evidence Base for Mental Health Practitioners.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2021Review
- Touch Research-Quo Vadis? A Plea for High-Quality Clinical Trials.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- Comparison Between Classic and Light Touch Massage on Psychological and Physical Functional Variables in Athletes: a Randomized Pilot Trial.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2020Article
- An Active Inference Approach to Interoceptive Psychopathology.Annual review of clinical psychology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveGeneralized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent and costly disorder for which many patients may prefer nontraditional treatment. A proof-of-concept study of was conducted to evaluate the acute effects of Swedish massage therapy (SMT) as a monotherapy for the treatment of subjects with GAD.
methodsA randomized, single-masked, clinical trial was conducted between March 2012 and May 2013 at the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program of Emory University. Forty-seven currently untreated subjects with a DSM-IV diagnosis of GAD were randomly assigned to twice-weekly SMT versus a light touch control condition for 6 weeks. The primary outcome measure was reduction in Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) scores after 6 weeks of treatment for SMT versus light touch, as determined by mixed model repeated-measures analysis of 40 evaluable subjects.
resultsMean HARS baseline scores were 20.05 (SD = 3.34) for SMT and 19.58 (SD = 4.90) for light touch. At week 6, the difference in mean (standard error of the mean [SEM]) HARS score reduction was 3.26 points (SMT: -11.67 [1.09]; light touch: -8.41 [1.01]; t₁₀₆ = -2.19; P = .030; effect size = -0.69). Treatment group differences were significant (P < .05) starting at the end of week 3.
conclusionThis first monotherapy trial suggests that a complementary and alternative manual therapy, SMT, is an effective acute treatment for GAD.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01337713.
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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.