Efficacy of Massage Therapy in the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01337713. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Efficacy of Massage and Light Touch Therapy for the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
There is an impressive and growing body of data suggesting that massage therapy is effective in decreasing some symptoms of pathological conditions as well as facilitating growth, reducing pain, increasing alertness, diminishing symptoms of depression and anxiety, and enhancing immune function. Preliminary studies suggest that massage therapy decreases symptoms of anxiety and depression, and lowers salivary cortisol levels in a wide array of childhood and adult neuropsychiatric disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit-disorder hyperactivity, depression, bulimia and anorexia-nervosa. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by the presence of a constellation of signs and symptoms for at least 6 months in duration, with some type of functional disability or decrease in quality of life. The signs and symptoms of GAD include a myriad of somatic symptoms including muscle tension, headaches, backaches, fatigue, restlessness, insomnia, as well as psychological feelings of worry, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed. Both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy are effective in decreasing the signs and symptoms of GAD. Unfortunately, the vast majority of patients with GAD never receive adequate pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy. Therefore, the development of a complementary and alternative therapy that has demonstrated efficacy for GAD might be well received by patients. This study's goals are to investigate the efficacy of Swedish massage therapy vs. light touch therapy and better understand the biological effects of massage in patients with anxiety. Qualified participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups in which they will receive Swedish massage therapy twice per week for 12 weeks or Light Touch therapy twice per week for 6 weeks followed by Swedish massage therapy twice per week for the next 6 weeks. The total length of the study is 13 weeks, which includes a screening visit that takes about 3 hours and two therapy visits per week for 12 weeks that last about 1 hour each. Blood and urine will be collected at three of the visits. Compensation is up to $400 for completing the entire study.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01337713
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 40 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 65 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Aug 31, 2010
- Primary completion
- Dec 31, 2013
- Completion
- Jun 30, 2014
- Last update posted
- Jul 26, 2017
2010 – 2014
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emory University, Department of Psychiatry | Atlanta | Georgia | 30322 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01337713, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jul 26, 2017 · Synced Sep 8, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01337713 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.