Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/398416
F r e e m u s i c d o w n l o a d s f o r C e r t i f i e d m e m b e r s : w w w. a b m p . c o m / g o / c e r t i f i e d c e n t r a l 51 NARRATIVE REVIEWS One of the most popular types of review is the narrative review because it is the most basic. Narrative reviews are overviews of the literature without information on how the articles were chosen for inclusion. While narrative reviews can be very interesting, straightforward, and simple to read, they can also be very biased because there are no rules for how the reviewed articles are chosen. An author might choose his or her favorite articles that have a positive slant. Think back to high-school English class, when the teacher gave you an assignment to write about a topic using at least five research references. We all chose references that supported our point of view and ignored those that went against it. Narrative review articles have the same potential for bias. An example of an interesting and helpful narrative review looks at the use of abdominal massage for chronic constipation. In 2011, massage therapist Marybetts Sinclair built upon a previous review of this topic by adding several more recent articles. The results demonstrated that "abdominal massage can stimulate peristalsis, decrease colonic transit time, increase the frequency of bowel movements in constipated patients, and decrease the feelings of discomfort and pain that accompany it. There is also good evidence that massage can stimulate peristalsis in patients with post surgical ileus." 2 Because this article is a compilation of several original research studies, the review is considered stronger evidence than an individual study. Information such as this may be of interest to your clients and can be shared with local doctors and surgeons. Even though Sinclair's article was a narrative review and the methods were somewhat weak, the compilation of research articles gives a more thorough understanding of possible results of abdominal massage for constipation. SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS The second type of review article is a systematic review. As the name suggests, there is a systematic process used in this form of review. First, the authors state how the articles were gathered, such as by searching in PubMed.gov or other research databases. The key search terms are defined for the reader, as well as any limits that might have been placed on the search, such as "English articles only." A systematic review will also define what type of articles are included— only randomized clinical trials, for example—and what types are excluded. Inclusion and exclusion criteria help the reader understand what type of research articles are being reviewed. Additionally, the systematic review will typically assess the quality of the original articles. Quality scores are presented in the results so the reader is aware of the strength of study design used in each original study. The benefit of a systematic review over a narrative review is that the systematic review is usually higher quality and less biased. More information is provided in the systematic review, such as how and where to search for similar articles and which articles are the strongest. However, systematic reviews are typically longer because the description of how the review was done is described thoroughly before the overall results are described. In the massage therapy literature, there are many systematic reviews. One such article by Myeong Soo Lee, PhD, Jong-In Kim, OMD, PhD, and Edzard Ernst, MD, PhD, assessed massage therapy for children with autism Review articles may help answer some questions—but they might raise new questions as well.