Massage therapy may help soothe pain and improve functioning in people with chronic low back pain, according to a recent study from the Annals of Internal Medicine.
For 10 weeks, 400 patients (all of whom had suffered low back pain for at least three months) were assigned to one of three treatments: structural massage, relaxation massage, or usual care. Members of the massage groups received an hour-long massage once a week, while members of the usual care group mostly relied on medications to ease their pain.
At the end of the treatment period, more than one in three massage-receiving patients said their back pain was completely resolved or had greatly improved. On the other hand, only one in 25 patients assigned to usual care experienced a similar degree of pain relief. What's more, nearly twice as many members of the massage groups showed significant improvements in functioning by the end of the study.
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