Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68009
SOMATIC RESEARCH However, if you've ever tried searching for the word massage, you've probably noticed that, in addition to the articles on therapeutic massage, you also get many unwanted or inappropriate ones: articles on cardiac massage to resuscitate dying patients, uterine massage after childbirth, etc. To avoid this problem, let's instead use PubMed's medical subject headings (MeSH). MeSH defines massage as a "Group of systematic and scientific manipulations of body tissues best performed with the hands for the purpose of affecting the nervous and muscular systems and the general circulation."1 Using the "Massage"[MeSH] format, with [MeSH] in brackets, tells PubMed that we want only articles in which the concept of massage matches the MeSH definition. This is not a perfect filter, but it usually excludes tangential articles. We add "Massage"[MeSH] in the text box, along with the term arthritis and the connector AND to join them. (Just as in addition where 3 + 5 = 5 + 3, terms joined with a simple AND can appear in any order.) Our comparison, pharmacological treatment, may belong in the search as well. However, there are many ways to express this idea—medication, prescription, the names of specific pain medications, and so on. Let's make the search as broad as possible, first trying it without any of these possible comparison terms. If the search returns an unmanageably large number of results, we'll go back and narrow our comparison. Finally, our desired outcome is pain reduction, so we'll filter out articles focused on other effects of arthritis (stiffness, inflammation, and so forth) by adding another restricting term—AND pain—to the search box. Now our search terms tell PubMed we want only articles dealing with 1) therapeutic massage as defined in MeSH; 2) in the context of arthritis; 3) that have to do with pain in some way. REFINE THE SEARCH There's one more thing before we proceed. To ensure our search returns articles that are freely available to everyone, we'll place a limit on our search. Click on the 118 massage & bodywork july/august 2009 limits tab, below and to the left of the search text box (Image 2). Under the third blue bar, titled Full Text, Free Full Text, and Abstracts, click the middle checkbox: Links to free full text. Now the search will return only articles matching all the search criteria that can be read for free. Now that the search terms are complete, click the Go button. If the search had returned no results, we would have had to broaden it by reducing the number of search terms or by changing them. If we had received hundreds of results, we would have to narrow the search by adding comparison terms as discussed above. In this case, our search returned two results, a manageable number. For additional information about advanced search techniques, access the resources listed in the menu on the left-hand side of the PubMed home page for FAQs and tutorials. EXAMINING SEARCH RESULTS Let's examine each result to see if it is relevant to our question. The first article is "Massage Therapy for Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Randomized Controlled Trial."