Complementary therapies in controlling side-effects during cancer treatment

Abstract

This systematic review evaluated whether reiki had an impact on patients undergoing chemo-therapy, with possible improvement of the following outcomes: fatigue, pain, anxiety and quality of life. Method: Systematic review study with meta-analysis conducted at a tertiary care center. The following databases were searched until July 2020: MEDLINE, LILACS and CENTRAL. Two re-viewers independently examined eligible articles, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane tool. Results: The analyzes included eight studies and showed that there was a sta-tistically significant for anxiety control (MD = -2-09; 95% CI: -3.00 to -1.19; I2 = 51%) and Quality of life (MD = -5.97; 95% CI: -10.70 to -1.25; I2 = 97%) but no statistically significant difference was found for the other outcomes analyzed. An analysis of the risk of bias has uncertain methodological limitations in the studies. Conclusions: Although there is anxiety control and improved quality of life, there is a need for the elaboration of randomized clinical trials with larger populations to verify their real performance in controlling some side effects during chemotherapy.