• Gerhard Mueller, Christoph Palli, and Petra Schumacher.
• UMIT - The Health & Life Sciences University, Department of Nursing Science and Gerontology, Tyrol, Austria. Electronic address: gerhard.mueller@umit.at.
• Pain Manag Nurs. 2019 Feb 1; 20 (1): 75-81.

BackgroundChronic back pain affects many aspects of everyday life and is a common reason for medical visits, leading to high direct and indirect health care costs. Innovative and cost-effective nonpharmacologic pain management methods should be promoted to ensure adequate treatment.AimsThe aim of this pilot study was to investigate the pain-relieving effect of Therapeutic Touch in adult neurologic patients with back pain.DesignA pretest-post-test randomized controlled trial.SettingsA university hospital in Austria.Participants/SubjectsPatients with back pain diagnosis (N = 29) on hospital admission.MethodsA pilot study was conducted for 3 months. The control group (n = 14) received the pharmacologic pain management recommended by the World Health Organization; patients in the intervention group (n = 15) received additionally four Therapeutic Touch treatments on 4 consecutive days. The Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale and the Numeric Pain Rating Scale were used as outcome measures to evaluate activity domains affected by back pain and pain intensity.ResultsPain improvement was found in the intervention group according to the mean score of the Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale (day 1: 72.53, standard deviation [SD] ± 14.10; day 4: 39.47, SD ± 8.77; p < .001). The Numerical Pain Rating Scale score averaged 4.33 points (SD ± 2.09) on the first day and 2.47 points (SD ± 1.12) on the fourth day. The long-term effect of Therapeutic Touch was significant and indicated a major effect (Pillai's trace = .641, F(3.12) = 7.1, p = .005, ηp2 = .641).ConclusionsTherapeutic Touch seems to be a noninvasive nursing intervention for back pain management to provide more professional patient care.Copyright © 2018 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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