چکیده:
Objectives: Massage therapy is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicine therapies for children. This study was conducted to determine the effect of wedish massage on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP).
Methods: This study was a single blind clinical trial conducted on forty children with spastic CP who were recruited from clinics of the University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences. They were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The routine occupational therapy (OT) techniques were performed during a 3 month-period in both groups. The intervention group also received Swedish massage for 30 minutes before every OT session. Primary, spinal, brain stem, midbrain, cortical and automatic reflexes were evaluated at the beginning of the study and 3 months later. The data analysis was done by parametric and nonparametric tests.
Results: Finally, thirteen subjects in the intervention group and 14 subjects in the control group were remained and studied. The average ages in the intervention and control groups were 49.5 and 42.1 months respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in abnormal reflexes in the intervention group in comparison to the control (P>0.05).
Discussion: Adding Swedish massage to traditional OT techniques had no significant effects on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy. Evidently more research is required in order to completely reject the effects of Swedish massage on abnormal reflexes of children with CP.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Swedish massage and abnormal reflexes of children with spastic cerebral palsy Vida Alizad; Roshanak Vameghi, MD.
This study was conducted to determine the effect of wedish massage on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP).
Material and Methods: This study was a single blind clinical trial conducted on forty children with spastic CP who were recruited from clinics of the University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences.
There were no statistically significant differences in abnormal reflexes in the intervention group in comparison to the control (P>0.
Conclusion: Adding Swedish massage to traditional OT techniques had no significant effects on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy.
Evidently more research is required in order to completely reject the effects of Swedish massage on abnormal reflexes of children with CP.
In one study (4) the frequency and type of CAM therapies used by families of 376 children with special health care needs (like cerebral palsy) were assessed.
There are hardly any studies reported on the effect of massage on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy, especially in Iran.
So, we conducted this study in order to observe whether adding Swedish massage to traditional occupational therapy had any effects on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy.
In some studies massage combined with other techniques has been used to treat children with cerebral palsy.
In one study (8) on 140 CP children in China a combined treatment package based on traditional Chinese medicine (including massage), western medicine and rehabilitation techniques and family therapy was adopted.