Two researchers at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center have been awarded a one-year $30,000 grant from the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of massage on patients who have had autologous bone marrow transplants.
Denise Tope, Ph.D., and Brianne Pinkson, L.P.N., will collaborate in a study of 30 cancer patients who are scheduled for autologous bone marrow transplants.
About half of the patients will receive massage therapy for their head, neck, shoulders and face for 20 minutes, three times a week, for three weeks, according to a DHMC press release.
The other group of patients will act as a control group and have uninterrupted quiet time.
"Massage seems to be such an intervention that gives the same effects as behavioral medicine treatments, such as relaxation techniques, without requiring much effort on the patient's part," she added.
The NIH grant was the first grant awarded to the researchers at Dartmouth's Center for Pyscho-Oncology Research, founded in 1993 as part of the DHMC, according to the press release.
The NIH grant was also one of the first series of 30 grants to be awarded by the Office of Alternative Medicine at NIH.
