van den Berg, M., Visser, A., Schoolmeesters, A., Edelman, P., & Borne, B. (2006). Evaluation of haptotherapy for patients with cancer treated with chemotherapy at a day clinic. Patient Education and Counseling, 60, 336–343.
The intervention consisted of five 45-minute haptotherapy sessions given during the period of chemotherapy as the patient desired. The mean time between the first and last session was 11.5 weeks (range 3–36). Sessions were performed by two haptotherapists on days when patients received chemotherapy. The first session included an introduction to haptotherapy and a preliminary interview reviewing patient goals for treatment. After establishing the needs of the patient, the therapist sought to bring the patient in contact with his/her body and feelings through the means of touch. Through contact, patients opened up emotionally and began to speak more freely about their feelings. Conversation and physical contact both are part of the treatment and cannot be viewed separately. The treatment often involved the back, legs, feet, belly, neck, and shoulders.
Patients in the intervention group were recruited from the day clinic of the Diakonessenhuis Zeist. Patients from the control group were from three other hospitals in the Utrecht region.
Patients were undergoing the active treatment phase of care.
The study used a nonrandomized, pre-/posttest semiexperimental design, with 31 patients in the haptotherapy group and 26 in the control group.
The intervention group experienced decreased fatigue from pretest to posttest according to EORTC evaluation. Conversely, the control group experienced increased fatigue from pretest to posttest assessment. The observed differences did not reach statistical significance.