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Can Massage Help ADHD?
I certainly would never have expected this, but a study which appeared in the spring 1998 issue of the journal Adolescence (pages 103-108) provides tantalizing evidence of a very surprising evidence. The study was authored by Dr. Tiffany Field who is a very well known researcher in child mental health, and who has published a number of studies on the beneficial effects of massage for infants. In this study, 28 adolescents with ADHD were randomly selected to receive either massage therapy or relaxation therapy (i.e. relaxation therapy is a technique in which clients are taught specific skills to enable them to become more calm and relaxed and is often used in treating anxiety disorders) for 10 consecutive school days.
At the end of the treatment, students who received massage, but not those who had received the relaxation treatment, rated themselves as feeling happier and observers rated them as being less fidgety and active following the sessions. Even more impressive is the fact that teachers rated these students as spending more time on task and showing less hyperactive behavior in the classroom (teachers did not know which students had received which treatment).
This is certainly an interesting result, even if it is unclear - at least to me - what the explanation for this effect would be. It is also important to keep in mind that as with any new treatment approach, avenues that seem initially promising do not always hold up to repeated study and investigation. That is why it is so important for studies such as this to be replicated, ideally with larger samples, before it is reasonable to recommend new approaches as a reasonable alternative to treatments with previously established efficacy. For ADHD, it is especially important to know how long the apparently beneficial effects from any form of treatment actually last and what impact does the treatment have on children’s long term success and development.
I’ll certainly keep you posted about any additional studies of this intriguing finding that I come across.
Note: This article originally appeared in Attention Research Update, an online newsletter written by Dr. David Rabiner, a Duke University psychologist and former member of CHADD's Professional Advisory Board. You can learn more about Attention Research Update and sign up for a free subscription at www.helpforadd.com.