Distance Healing in Wound Healing

California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 2; Phase 1

Conditions: Breast Reconstruction Surgery

Treatments: Behavioral: Distance healing

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT00067717

SchlitzMJ

R21AT001437 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This trial examines the impact of patients' knowledge of an experienced distant healer's efforts to heal them on measures of wound healing, psychosocial functioning, and physiological symptoms after plastic surgery.

Enrollment: 72 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 34 to 64 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Women undergoing major plastic surgery (> 2 hours in length)
• Health status is excellent with no systemic disease, no limitation on activity, no danger of death or disease of one body system, well-controlled underlying disease

Exclusion criteria

• Remove history of breast or other cancers
• History of radiation therapy to the abdomen or any radiation within the past three months
• Non-English speaking
• Unable or unwilling to fill out questionnaires
• Current smoker
• Morbid obesity
• Circulatory inadequacies (i.e., diabetes, hypovolemia)
• Nutritional deficits as evidenced by neutropenia (WBC <2500/ml) or hypoalbuminemia (albumin <3.3mmg/dl) / chart review

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind

---

72 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Distant Healing

Experimental group

Description:

This group received distant healing but was blinded to the condition.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Distance healing

Non-blinded Distant Healing

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

This group received the distant healing intervention and was called every day they were receiving to be told they were receiving it, therefore enhancing expectancy.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Distance healing

Blinded Control

No Intervention group

Description:

This group was blinded to the intervention condition and did not receive any distant healing.