• massage therapy

    Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies for the Treatment of Perinatal Depression: A Review

    In an excellent and thoughtful review article, Kristina Deligiannidis and Marlene Freeman (from the MGH Center for Women’s Mental Health) summarize data on the efficacy of complementary and alternative medicine therapies for the treatment of perinatal depression.  This is one of the most thorough reviews on CAM and provides thoughtful, evidence-based recommendations regarding the use of these treatments for women with perinatal depression.  It is definitely worth tracking down a copy of this review, but if you can’t find it, here is a summary.

    Massage Therapy for Depression

    There are currently 100 clinical trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov using massage as a treatment.  Six are listed for the indication of depression.  A small minority are focused specifically on treating depression or anxiety, while in many the effects of massage for patients with serious medical conditions are being explored.  Infant massage is also under study for developmental benefits.  The number of randomized trials for verified psychiatric disorders using massage as an intervention are limited to date.

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