The pain and depression symptoms that sometimes occur
following cancer surgery can be eased by a combination of acupuncture and
massage, according to new research.
A study conducted by the University of California San
Francisco found that two days of acupuncture and massage, in addition to
standard post-operative care, led to a steeper decline for patients with pain
symptoms over three days of measurement, as compared to those who received
standard post-op care alone.
âWe can say that adding acupuncture and massage definitely
helped,â said Wolf E. Mehling, M.D., assistant professor of family and community
medicine at UCSF.
Mehling cautioned that more research would be needed to
convince health plans and hospital administrators that adding massage and
acupuncture to standard post-operative treatment for cancer surgery patients
are worth the cost.
Source: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, March 2007
