Pilotstudy of Healing in Uppsala Akademiska University Hospital Sweden

Pilot-study in Uppsala University Hospital

1997 - 1998 

Healing as a complement to traditional medical therapy for patients with lung cancer.

B Hammarstrom, L Rindstam, H Riska, C Lindholm


A pilot study involving “healing” for patients with lung cancer was conducted at the Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden.

Four patients in the experimental group received “healing” once a week in combination with the traditional medical treatment with chemotherapy.

Five patients served as a control group receiving only traditional medical treatment. Healing was administered through a form of spiritual healing (Hodges p. 205). The specific method used was the Swedish Rindstam method involving the activation of spinal energy centres combined with acupressure.

The influence of healing on peripheral circulation was analysed with infrared technique measuring the temperature of the skin, which showed a significant increase after healing. The patient’s subjective experience of increased warmth and heat radiating through the body corresponded to results with the infrared heat camera. The study on quality of life shows tendencies to differences between the two groups. Patients in the group receiving healing had, in all situations, felt better at the completion of chemotherapy than had patients in the control group. It is difficult to draw any general conclusions from this material, however, no negative effects of healing were recorded during this study.

Background

The Swedish committee for Alternative medicine stated in an official report to the Ministry of health and social affairs (SOU 1989:60) that research in alternative and complementary therapies is important. This investigation revealed that 20 percent of the Swedish population choose alternative forms of treatment when they were ill. Healing is one of these alternative treatment forms. The word healing comes from the German word heil, which means whole. Healing is considered to be a process whereby the body uses its own healing recourses to return to a state of wholeness: in emotions, psyche and soul. Healing can be described as:

"The direct interaction between one individual, the healer, and a second, sick individual with the intention of bringing about an improvement or cure of the illness. Any healing effect results from the channelling of an, as yet unrecognised, energy through the healer to the patient".

(Hodges, R.D. & Scofield, A.M. 1995, s 203.)

Healing as a complement to traditional medical therapy is seldom practised in Sweden. In England the General Medical Council has amended its ethical rulebook so that doctors can recommend patients to healers. Even the Department of Health has changed its administrative rules to allow general practitioners to employ these practitioners in their practices. There are 8000 registered healers in England who practice both within and outside of the National Health Service. Research on alternative medicine is ongoing in England and the United States (Bendor, D.J, 1993. Hodges, R.D. & Scofield, A.M, 1995.) There is, to our knowledge, no comparative research on alternative and complementary therapies in Sweden.

The purpose of this pilot study is to study and compare medical effects and quality of life for patients who receive healing as a complement to medical treatment with patients who receive only medical treatment.

Research questions:

• Can a tendency be shown that healing has an effect on the temperature of the skin?
• Can differences in quality of life parameters be shown for patients receiving healing compared with those who do not receive healing?

• What are patient’s subjective experiences of healing?

Subjects
Nine patients with diagnosed lung cancer were at the time of this study scheduled for chemotherapy at the outpatient clinic at the University hospital in Uppsala. All of the patients agreed to participate in the study. The deciding factors for participation in the healing group were the patients personal wishes, the distance between the patients home and the hospital and that the onset of healing therapy should coincide as close as possible with onset of chemotherapy.

Gender    Age          Diagnosis             Treatment

Control group

   F            59           Adenocarcinoma     Taxol/Paraplatin
   M           65           Small cell                Cisplatin/Vepesid
   F            74           Low differential       Taxol/Paraplatin
   F            78           Squamous cell         Gemzar cycle
   M           73           Squamous cell        Taxol/Paraplatin

Experimental group

   M           65           Non small cell         Paraplatin/Vespesid
   M           66           Adenocarcinoma     Paraplatin/ Vespesid
   M           64           Low differential       Taxol/Paraplatin
   F            70           Squamous cell        Cisplatin/Vepesid


Method
Five patients, two men and three women, were in the control group and received only chemotherapy. Four patients, three men and one woman received healing once a week in addition to chemotherapy.
The patients receiving healing did not pay extra for healing treatment.
The healing therapy was administered in the form of laying-on-of-hands for a period of 30 minutes.
Two of the patients in the healing group were photographed on four occasions with an infrared camera, Thermovision 550, (borrowed from Agema, Infrared Systems AB) before healing and 30 minutes after healing treatment. The pictures were processed and analysed by Agema.
All of the patients were asked to answer a quality of life questionnaire, EORTC-QLQ-C30, on three occasions, before, during and one to two weeks after completion of healing treatment.
The patients receiving healing reported their state of health during the periods between healing sessions.

Blood circulation
Patients in the healing group experienced a feeling of heat radiating throughout their bodies during the healing treatment. No patients in the control group reported symptoms of increased body warmth. To establish a correlation between the patient’s subjective experience of warmth and actual skin temperature, infrared pictures of the back were taken before treatment and 30 minutes after completion of the healing.

Fig.1: Picture taken before healing treatment.
Temp: Min. 32.6º C Max 33.9º

Fig.2 Picture taken 30 minutes after treatment.
Temp: Min. 34º C Max 35º C

The infrared pictures show minimal and maximum registered skin temperatures.
The results showed an increase in the lowest measured skin temperature of 1.4 degrees centigrade and an increase of the highest measured temperature of 1.1 degrees centigrade 

Fig. 3 Picture taken before healing treatment.
Temp: Min. 32.2º C. Max. 34.7º C

Fig. 4 Picture taken 30 minutes after treatment.
Temp. Min. 33.6º C. Max. 36.0º C

The results showed an increase in the lowest measured skin temperature of 1.4 degrees centigrade and an increase of the highest measured temperature of 1.3 degrees centigrade.