This article details Meehan's research study concerning the conceptualization of
therapeutic touch within Rogers' science of unitary human beings and an investigation of the effects of
therapeutic touch on
pain experience in postoperative patients. Using a single trial, single-blind, three-group design, 108 postoperative patients were randomly assigned to receive one of the following:
therapeutic touch, a placebo control intervention which mimicked
therapeutic touch, or the standard intervention of a
narcotic analgesic. Using a visual analogue scale,
pain was measured before and one hour following intervention. The hypothesis, that
therapeutic touch would significantly decrease
postoperative pain compared to the placebo control intervention, was not supported. Secondary analyses suggest that
therapeutic touch may decrease patients' need for
analgesic medication. Implications for further research and practice are suggested.