This study was conducted to determine the effect of Reiki performed on children with leukemia between the ages of 5-7 years on pain, vital signs, oxygen saturation, and quality of life. It was a double-blind, pre-test-post-test randomized controlled experimental study. The research sample consisted of 66 children with leukemia aged 5-7 years who were hospitalized in pediatric oncology wards of a university hospital between December 2020 and November 2021. The balanced block randomization method was used for randomization. The data were collected using Information Form, Wong-Baker FACES Pain Scale (W-BPS), Vital Signs Follow-up Form, The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 3.0 Cancer Module. Reiki was performed to the Reiki group for 20-30 min once per day, for 3 consecutive days and pseudo-Reiki was applied to the pseudo-Reiki group by an independent nurse during the same application period.
There was no statistically significant difference in vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature) and SpO2 values among the groups (p > 0.05). However, both children’s and mothers’ evaluations on days 1, 2, and 3 after the intervention showed that pain scores in the Reiki group were significantly lower than in the pseudo-Reiki and control groups (p < 0.001), and quality of life was significantly higher (child:p < 0.001; mother:p < 0.01) compared to the pseudo-Reiki and control groups.
The authors concluded that Reiki did not affect the vital signs of the children but was effective in reducing pain and increasing the quality of life compared with the pseudo Reiki and control groups. It is recommended that Reiki therapy be used in addition to medical treatment to reduce pain and improve quality of life in children with leukemia aged 5-7 years.
The whole point of having a control group receiving pseudo-Reiki is to control for placebo effects. For this purpose, it is necessary to fool the patients well and make sure that they are unable to tell Reiki from pseudo-Reiki. I would guess – I have no aceess to the full paper – that this was not the case in this study. If I am correct, the positive outcome is likely to be due to expectation of a positive healing effect and unrelated to any specific effect of Reiki.
In any case, it is irresponsible nonsense to recommend Reiki – or any therapy – on the basis of just one positive study. For that one would need several independent confirmations with high quality studies that firmly establish a cause effect relationship. The current study does not fall into that category, and I am not aware of a single trial that does.
2 Responses to The effects of Reiki in children with leukemia on pain, vital signs and quality of life
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It sounds to me like the pseudo-Reiki was performed by someone ‘taught’ Reiki by the Reiki practitioner but not actually taught Reiki and unaware of this!
2.5.1. Practitioners- Reiki was performed by the researcher (DD), who received the Reiki 1 certificate in 2017 and Reiki 2 certificate in 2019 and had been practicing Reiki for about 5years. In the Reiki group, the certified practitioner performed the intervention using the standardized Usui Reiki hand positions, lightly placing the hands on or just above the child’s body. The practitioner actively focused on transmitting Reiki energy through intention and meditative concentration during the session.- The pseudo-Reiki was performed by a nurse who was independent of the research and had no Reiki training. This person was taught Reiki hand positions by the researcher (DD) and made her think that she was doing Reiki. In the pseudo-Reiki group, an independent nurse replicated the same hand positions, duration, and sequence as in the Reiki group; did not invoke the Reiki energy, did not establish an intentional energy connection, and did not perform any mental or meditative practices associated with Reiki. The procedure was limited to mimicking physical positioning only.
Elsewhere it says “The researcher administering Reiki and the nurse administering pseudo-Reiki entered the patient’s room together.” which seems a bit odd, so presumably they were both present during the Reiki? Or at least the patient and patients parent had the opportunity to be aware that there were two possible practitioners and they got treated by only one of them.
thanks
much as I suspected; several possibilities of patient-deblinding and thus expectation effects.