Evaluating Personalized Effect of an Individualized Intervention

Summary

Energy healing is among the most commonly used forms of complementary and alternative medicine among cancer patients. There are, however, few studies on the effects of energy healing for cancer and cancer associated symptoms and none of them are of a volume or quality that allows reliable conclusions to be drawn. Qualitative studies on energy healing in Denmark have demonstrated that the interventions are individualized and the expected outcomes personalized. This research points to the need for a research design that can evaluate personalized outcomes of individualized treatments and at the same time adhere to general demands of external and internal validity.

The objective of this study is to test the effectiveness of energy healing as an individualized rehabilitative intervention to improve outcomes of personal choice among persons who have completed a conventional intended curative treatment for colorectal, breast and prostate cancer. The study is designed as a pragmatic clinical trial with personalized outcomes.

The study attempts to maximize external validity by using a design that incorporates important features of energy healing administered in real-life settings: 1a) allowing participants self-selection to healing and non-healing control, 1b) assessing individual participant-selected treatment goals, 1c) allowing the treatment to be performed in the private clinics of the healers. To maximize internal validity similar to that obtained in a randomized, clinical trial design, the study will 2a) randomize participants to self-selection and randomized groups of intervention and control; and 2b) supplement the assessment of personalized treatment goals with assessment of outcomes with standardized measures.

The study will account for a number of possible moderators of the effects, including 3a) socio-demographics and 3b) previous experience with complementary and alternative treatment. Outcome measures will be assessed by questionnaires, physical measurements, data from administrative registries as well as semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Possible patterns in the various forms of data will be examined for concordances and discrepancies.

Finally, the methods will be discussed in terms of their generalizability as a model for evaluating personal outcomes of individualized treatments with high levels of external and internal validity.

Conditions

• Colorectal Cancer

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Energy healing

"Healer-Ringen", a Danish national association of healers, selects healers with an educational background as required by the Registry of Alternative Practitioners (RAB) and have rooms reserved for the healing practice. The treatment takes place in the clinic of the healer and is not restricted in respect to what form of energy healing that shall be used, provided that it is based on the idea of the healer providing some kind of energy by the hands to the participant. Conversation as usual is accepted, but no other form of therapy may be provided. The intervention consists of four sessions over a period of two months, distributed as decided by each participant-healer pair.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Aarhus

  collaborator OTHER

• The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Denmark

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of Southern Denmark

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Helle Johannessen, PhD · University of Southern Denmark

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-09-30

Primary Completion

2012-11-30

Completion

2012-11-30

Countries

• Denmark

Study Locations