A Mobile and Web-Based Self-Directed Complementary and Integrative Health Program for Veterans and Their Partners (Mission Reconnect): Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Complementary and integrative health (CIH) is a viable solution to PTSD and chronic pain. Many veterans believe CIH can be performed only by licensed professionals in a health care setting. Health information technology can bring effective CIH to veterans and their partners.

Work environment facilitators to the availability of complementary and alternative therapies in perinatal hospices.

Increasingly, patients and clinicians are considering palliative care interventions during pregnancy for the maternal-fetal dyad, when a life-limiting diagnosis is confirmed. Nurses are at the forefront of providing hospice and palliative care that includes planning interventions for infants nearing the end of life. However, little is known about the work environment facilitators to the availability of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies.

A feasibility study of caregiver-provided massage as supportive care for Veterans with cancer.

Purpose: To assess the feasibility of using a multimedia program to teach caregivers of Veterans with cancer how to offer basic massage for supportive care at home.

Methods: Feasibility was assessed according to partner availability, compliance with watching training materials and practicing massage regularly, compliance with data collection; perceived study materials burden; clarity of instructional and other study materials. Pre- and post-massage changes in patients' symptom scores were measured using a numerical rate scale.

A survey of the use of complementary and alternative medicine in Illinois hospice and palliative care organizations.

This research assesses complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use and administration for patients and family caregivers in Illinois hospice and palliative care organizations. An online survey was administered to a sample of 108 contacts of Illinois organizations listed in the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization website, and 90.3% of the responding organizations offered some type of CAM.

Touch, Caring, and Cancer: randomized controlled trial of a multimedia caregiver education program.

Purpose: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate outcomes of a multimedia instructional program for family caregivers in simple touch-based techniques to provide comfort to cancer patients at home.

Methods: A multilingual 78-min DVD and 66-page manual were produced for homebased instruction. Content addresses attitudes and communication about touch in cancer, psychological preparation for giving and receiving touch, safety precautions, massage techniques for comfort and relaxation, acupressure for specific cancer-related symptoms, and practice in the home setting.

Introducing spirituality, religion and culture curricula in the psychiatry residency programme.

A growing body of research suggests that religion and spirituality may have a positive effect on mental and physical health. Medical schools have been increasingly offering courses in spirituality and health, particularly about the multi-cultural dimensions of religion and spirituality. There is a trend towards integrating the teaching of cross-cultural issues related to spirituality and religion into medical education.

Might massage or guided meditation provide "means to a better end"? Primary outcomes from an efficacy trial with patients at the end of life.

This article reports findings from a randomized controlled trial of massage and guided meditation with patients at the end of life. Using data from 167 randomized patients, the authors considered patient outcomes through 10 weeks post-enrollment, as well as next-of-kin ratings of the quality of the final week of life for 106 patients who died during study participation. Multiple regression models demonstrated no significant treatment effects of either massage or guided meditation, delivered up to twice a week, when compared with outcomes of an active control group that received visits from hospice-trained volunteers on a schedule similar to that of the active treatment arms.

A survey of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) awareness among neurosurgeons in Washington State.

Objectives: Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by the U.S. population increased significantly in the past 2 decades.

Three lessons from a randomized trial of massage and meditation at end of life: patient benefit, outcome measure selection, and design of trials with terminally ill patients.

Improving end-of-life care is a priority in the United States, but assigning priorities for standard care services requires evaluations using appropriate study design and appropriate outcome indicators. A recent randomized controlled trial with terminally ill patients produced no evidence of benefit from massage or guided meditation, when evaluated with measures of global quality of life or pain distress over the course of patient participation. However, reanalysis using a more targeted outcome, surrogates' assessment of patients' benefit from the study intervention, suggested significant gains from massage-the treatment patients gave their highest preassignment preference ratings.

Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by Washington State hospices.

Purpose: To assess the use of complementary and alternative medicine in hospice care in the state of Washington.

Methods: Hospices offering inpatient and outpatient care in Washington State were surveyed by phone interview.

Results: Response rate was 100%.

Compassionate intention as a therapeutic intervention by partners of cancer patients: effects of distant intention on the patients' autonomic nervous system.

Objective: This double-blind study investigated the effects of intention on the autonomic nervous system of a human "sender" and distant "receiver" of those intentions, and it explored the roles that motivation and training might have in modulating these effects.

Design: Skin conductance level was measured in each member of a couple, both of whom were asked to feel the presence of the other. While the receiving person relaxed in a distant shielded room for 30 minutes, the sending person directed intention toward the receiver during repeated 10-second epochs separated by random interepoch periods.

Acupuncture is underutilized in hospice and palliative medicine.

Acupuncture is a complementary and alternative medical modality. A considerable body of acupuncture research has accumulated since 1998. Acupuncture has been integrated into palliative care settings in the United Kingdom but is yet to be widely offered in the United States.

Evidence for correlations between distant intentionality and brain function in recipients: a functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis.

This study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, demonstrated that distant intentionality (DI), defined as sending thoughts at a distance, is correlated with an activation of certain brain functions in the recipients. Eleven healers who espoused some form for connecting or healing at a distance were recruited from the island of Hawaii. Each healer selected a person with whom they felt a special connection as a recipient for DI.

Replicable functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence of correlated brain signals between physically and sensory isolated subjects.

Objectives: Previous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments have suggested that correlated neural signals may be detected in the brains of individuals who are physically and sensorily isolated from each other. Functional MRI and EEG methods were used in the present study in an attempt to replicate these findings. DESIGN/SETTINGS: Subjects were electrically and magnetically shielded because of the characteristic surroundings of the scanner room.

Electroencephalographic evidence of correlated event-related signals between the brains of spatially and sensory isolated human subjects.

Objective: To determine whether correlated event-related potentials (ERPs) can be detected between the brains of spatially and sensory isolated human subjects.

Design And Setting: Simultaneous digitized electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded from the occipital area in pairs of human subjects placed in sound attenuated rooms separated by 10 meters. One person relaxed in one of the rooms while the other received visual stimulation while in the other room.