Immediate Symptom Relief After a First Session of Massage Therapy or Reiki in Hospitalized Patients: A 5-Year Clinical Experience from a Rural Academic Medical Center.

Objectives: There is an increasing demand for and use of alternative and complementary therapies, such as reiki and massage therapy, in hospital-based settings. Most controlled studies and practice-based reports include oncology and surgical patient populations; thus the effect in a more heterogeneous hospitalized patient population is hard to estimate. We examined the immediate symptom relief from a single reiki or massage session in a hospitalized population at a rural academic medical center.