Massage therapy is a boon for mentally challenged people, whose behaviours can be more challenging than most. When massage therapy is applied, both their mind and body undergo relaxation. People with profound intellectual disabilities often fail to express their emotions; as a result, they become victims of depression, which in turn makes them aggressive. To date, many studies have been done to assess the therapeutic value of massage for exactly these situations.
To find out how effective massaging is on intellectually disabled persons, several studies were conducted on seven males and thirteen females aged between 5 and 62 — many of them with aggressive or stereotypic self-stimulation behaviour.
The process of intervention
The studies were carried out in hospital wards, residential homes and special schools. During the research it was found that almost all of the patients suffered from depression, anxiety, or both. To compare the effects of different massage techniques, the researchers used multi-sensory rooms. A series of massages was applied to the subjects, each session lasting between 10 and 45 minutes. The subjects were given massages either daily or weekly, with the hands being the most frequent location of massage.
Among the studies, Gale and Hegarty in 1996 had clients receive the treatment over a three-month period, whereas Solomons in 2005 gave the treatment of longest duration — eight months. In one particular case, massage was given regularly for eighteen months to determine its efficacy.
The outcome
Most of the time, the researchers preferred not to detail the scheduling of the treatment — frequency, pressure applied, technique used, duration and other such factors. Yet the involvement of acupressure, petrissage and effleurage is essential to knowing the overall impact the massage therapy is creating. Assessments made before and after the treatment sessions showed a remarkable change in behaviour: on the level of relaxation, the psychological data presented after the successful completion of therapy proved that the subjects were carried into a state of relaxation during treatment — one that lasted for hours even after the session was over. Behavioural change remained a significant part of the outcome measures.
Subjects with severe challenging behaviour started to behave calmly in most circumstances — and their self-injuring behaviours reduced considerably.
The studies, on completion of the intervention
Beyond Hegarty and Gale, Dossetor and colleagues in 1991 also recorded a progressive decrease in a subject’s aggressive behaviour. Sadly, two subjects with autism did not complete the whole process, as they disliked all forms of touch therapy. These studies also highlight the fact that a maintenance programme is important to keep making progress in behaviour.
What the case file shows
- Studies ran from 3 months (Gale & Hegarty, 1996) to 8 months (Solomons, 2005) — one case continued for 18 months.
- Relaxation achieved during treatment lasted hours beyond the session.
- Severe challenging behaviour calmed; self-injuring behaviours fell considerably.
- A maintenance programme is important for continued progress.
What it means
From these studies it is clear that massage therapy brings positive emotional and behavioural change. Through massage, mentally challenged people can be made to feel special by the caring attitude shown during a session. The attention and physical touch involved play a significant role in alleviating depression in intellectually disabled individuals. Moreover, massaging relaxes the muscles, which in turn reduces anxiety and stereotypic self-stimulating behaviour. And since restless people cannot otherwise experience relaxation, massage comes to replace many kinds of maladaptive behaviour in them.