In Canada, Addiction Prevention and Treatment Service's (APTS) offer programs specifically designed to help people withdrawal from psychoactive drugs. While participants of withdrawal management (Detox) programs generally reach their goals, the process is a difficult one often exacting an emotional and physical toll. Troublesome symptoms of withdrawal from psychoactive drugs may include anxiety and sleep disturbances. If untreated these symptoms can lead to discontinuation of withdrawal and /or affect the introduction of cognitive-behavioral and or motivational therapy components of Detox programs. In Detox the symptoms of withdraw are managed pharmacologically. Pharmacological tools for managing anxiety and sleep disturbances exist and while effective and safe, in many clinical settings, have limitations and liability in the addiction treatment setting. To address these concerns APTS has incorporated non-pharmacological anxiety management practices into its programs. Prominent among these is therapeutic massage (chair massage in the Swedish tradition). While therapeutic massage has been shown to reduce state and trait anxiety in a variety of clinical settings, no previous study has assessed its anxiolytic or sleep promoting efficacy in an addiction treatment setting. In keeping with ATPS's policy on evidence-based practice, evidence in support of this practice is now required. Research Objectives: We propose to test the Hypothesis: Therapeutic Massage is an effective therapy for managing withdrawal-related anxiety and for improving sleep effectiveness in patients withdrawing from psychoactive drugs. Our specific objective is to perform a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine whether therapeutic massage is effective in comparison to relaxation control treatment in reducing the levels of state and trait anxiety associated with withdrawal and in promoting sleep efficiency. Research Design: A RCT of the effects of therapeutic massage will be conducted on 80 patients (ages 18-65) attending an APTS Detox program. Patients will be assigned to 1 of 2 treatment groups (n=40/group) and will receive either: therapeutic massage or relaxation control treatment once a day for 3 consecutive days. Anxiety, state and trait, will be measured pre and post each treatment through a standardized tool and physiologic measures (heart rate \& blood pre(state and trait) and sleep efficiency will be determined through actigraphy and daily sleep logs.
Age range
18 Years – 65 Years
Sex
ALL
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State and Trait Anxiety (Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory of Adults (Y1 and Y2))
Timeframe: State and trait anxiety scores will be determined at baseline (at the time of recruitment into the study) and then immediately prior to and within 10 minutes following each intervention session (pre/post design)