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Review
Reiki therapy for pain, anxiety and quality of life
  1. Maxime Billot1,2,
  2. Maeva Daycard3,
  3. Chantal Wood4 and
  4. Achille Tchalla1,2
  1. 1 Clinical Geriatric, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Limoges, Limoges, France
  2. 2 Faculty of Sport Sciences, Laboratoire HAVAE, Limoges, France
  3. 3 Eveil: l’équilibre par les mains, Limoges, France
  4. 4 Centre de la douleur chronique, pôle clinique médicale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Limoges, Limoges, France
  1. Correspondence to Dr Maxime Billot, Clinical Geriatric, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Limoges, Limoges 87000, France; maxime.billot2{at}gmail.com

Abstract

The use of complementary and alternative therapies is growing year after year, and Reiki therapy takes a place of choice. Reiki therapy, classed as a biofield energy therapy, raises the question of validity when applied to patients, especially in palliative care. The purpose of this review is to highlight the effects of Reiki therapy on pain, anxiety/depression and quality of life of patients, specifically in palliative care. The current article indicates that Reiki therapy is useful for relieving pain, decreasing anxiety/depression and improving quality of life in several conditions. Due to the small number of studies in palliative care, we were unable to clearly identify the benefits of Reiki therapy, but preliminary results tend to show some positive effects of Reiki therapy for the end-of-life population. These results should encourage teams working in palliative care to conduct more studies to determine the benefits of Reiki therapy on pain, anxiety/depression and quality of life in palliative care.

  • reiki therapy
  • pain
  • anxiety/depression
  • quality of life
  • palliative care

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-001775

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All named authors contributed to the project and to the writing of the paper. MB drafted manuscript. MD, CW and AT edited and revised manuscript. MB, MD, CW and AT approved final version of manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.