Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72093
I am grateful that our clients are our advocates, demanding prescriptions for massage and seeking out massage therapists on their own to find relief from painful and stressful conditions, but we must take some responsibility. It is time to take an active role in promoting massage therapy for pain relief and as an alternative to prescription and over-the-counter pain medications. This is best done by finding the research that supports our clinical findings and, with a well-written introductory letter, sharing the articles with our clients' doctors. A few conclusive research articles could assist in marketing your skills and services. For example, I recently moved my practice within a block of a pain specialist. Many physicians, physical therapists, and chiropractors refer to this clinic when their patients need help managing pain conditions that are complicated or unresponsive, avoiding surgery, or recovering from an unsuccessful surgical intervention. I currently tout working with acute postoperative pain and chronic pain as my primary specialties. Success with one of the clients from the pain clinic could lead to relationships not only within the pain clinic's staff, but also with many other health-care providers in the area. FIND SUPPORTIVE EVIDENCE The most accessible place to look for evidence supporting massage as a treatment for pain is PubMed (www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pubmed). PubMed is a free database of medical research citations that provides access to the MEDLine database of references and abstracts. Over 21 million references are indexed on PubMed, and many of these references provide links to full-text articles. To get you started, here are a few suggestions on how to begin a search on massage and pain: 1. Identify your search terms. 2. Search for systematic reviews. 3. Use PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) to refine your search. 4. Search for clinical trials. 5. Print articles that provide supporting evidence and use them to promote your practice to health- care providers that treat pain patients. A variety of tutorials are accessible on PubMed to assist you in navigating the site. Jump in with the information provided here and know that if you get stuck,` help is available. IDENTIFY SEARCH TERMS The first step in conducting a literature search on massage therapy and pain is to identify the words that will best represent the information you seek. A very general search done on massage and pain may yield more results than you wish to investigate, or you may want to get more specific. This scenario—pain—could yield a variety of research questions. We could pursue chronic pain, or choose specific topics like fibromyalgia, neurogenic pain, or osteoarthritis. If you are more interested in acute pain, search for acute pain, or specify postoperative pain, sports injuries, or traumatic injuries. Narrow the focus of your search by identifying your area of expertise and interest. Or, you may choose to focus on a recent client that presented with a troubling pain condition. Once you have identified a general or specific search term for pain, select the search term for the intervention. You may explore massage therapy in general, or identify specific bodywork modalities. You might be interested in myofascial techniques and the latest information that came out of the International Fascia Research Congress held in March. Typically, massage is not described in detail in research (something I hope improves in the near future), and is often used as a general term. Therefore, the use of specific techniques or modalities in your search may not be fruitful. Some terms that will yield limited results include Celebrate ABMP's 25th anniversary and you may win a refund on your membership. ABMP.com. 49