Effects of Reiki on Anxiety, Depression, Pain, and Physiological Factors in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of Reiki as an alternative and complementary approach to treating community-dwelling older adults who experience pain, depression, and/or anxiety. Participants (N = 20) were randomly assigned to either an experimental or wait list control group. The pre- and posttest measures included the Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, Faces Pain Scale, and heart rate and blood pressure. The research design included an experimental component to examine changes in these measures and a descriptive component (semi-structured interview) to elicit information about the experience of having Reiki treatments. Significant differences were observed between the experimental and treatment groups on measures of pain, depression, and anxiety; no changes in heart rate and blood pressure were noted. Content analysis of treatment notes and interviews revealed five broad categories of responses: Relaxation; Improved Physical Symptoms, Mood, and Well-Being; Curiosity and a Desire to Learn More; Enhanced Self-Care; and Sensory and Cognitive Responses to Reiki.

Is energy healing an effective non-pharmacological therapy for improving symptom management of chronic illnesses? A systematic review

“…Primary and secondary outcomes of included phase II RCT's and pilot studies that were significant included pain (n=8 studies), quality of life, coping and health locus of control, anxiety, selfesteem, psychological distress, fatigue, joint function, depression. Five studies identified adverse effects in a minority of recipients including increased anxiety; excess energy worsening sleep or depressed mood; transient headache or crying (n=2); temporary severe pain and fever (fibromyalgia patients; n=4) (that was followed by rapid improvement in symptoms) associated with healing [13,27,28,45,53].…”

“…Utilising the same healer(s) for all sessions was a key element of 12 out of 13 studies that had significant results [12,28,29,31,32,35,37,39,43,45,49,53]. A further seven studies maintained the same healer(s) for all sessions however results of these studies were not significant [13,27,33,40,46,47,50,55].…”

“…Eleven out of 13 energy healing interventions with significant results involved large groups with greater than five participants allocated per healer [12,29,31,32,35,37,39,43,45,49,53,56].…”

“…Verbal communication prior to energy healing at a distance [35,53] or contact energy healing [28,29,32,37,48] took place between healer and recipient in six studies with significant outcomes, however, verbal communication was not used during the intervention period in seven studies with significant results [12,31,38,39,43,45,49,56]. A specific visualisation component was not included in two studies that had significant results [40,52].…”

Effect of Reiki on Symptom Management in Oncology

“…Rei (sometimes thought of as a supreme being) and ki (meaning universal life energy) (Lee et al, 2008;Richeson et al, 2010;Birocco et al, 2012). Everything in the universe is made up of energy.…”