Healing Hands Therapy

Conclusion

Articles that were scored above ‘Satisfactory’ were further examined to determine to what degree they provided support for the use of Reiki as a healing modality (see Figure below). Perhaps the strongest evidence that Reiki has a demonstrable biological effect comes from the carefully controlled studies on rats by Baldwin and colleagues (2006, 2008; both rated ‘Excellent’). In a laboratory setting, Reiki (performed at a distance from the animals) significantly reduced stress responses relative to sham Reiki. It should not be surprising that animal studies form the strongest indication of Reiki’s effectiveness, as experiments in the laboratory can be designed to control for most variables that would otherwise complicate studies on human subjects. Interestingly, depression and stress were also the two clinical conditions that responded in a significant way to Reiki intervention (Shore, 2004; rated ‘Excellent’), consistent with the preclinical findings of Baldwin . Further evaluation in expanded preclinical and clinical studies on stress, anxiety and depression reduction are therefore warranted.

Additional publications by Dressin and Singg (1998; rated ‘Satisfactory to Very Good’), Wirth et al (1993; rated ‘Satisfactory to Very Good’), and Vitale and O’Connor (2006; rated ‘Very Good to Excellent’) all suggest a benefit of Reiki in controlling pain levels in humans, but firm conclusions cannot be drawn as each study design contained one or more confounding variables.

In our analysis, there was only one solidly negative result (Assefi and Bogart, 2008; rated ‘Excellent’) in a study showing no statistically significant effect of Reiki on fibromyalgia-associated pain levels. This observation suggests that although Reiki intervention may be useful in some settings, it is not universally effective in all clinical indications, as is also the case for more conventional drug treatments. Negative results such as these are quite helpful in guiding the focus of future controlled studies.

Overall, based on the summaries of those studies that were rated as Very Good or Excellent by at least one reviewer and were not rated as weak by any reviewer, 83% show moderate to strong evidence in support of  Reiki as a therapeutic modality.