Breast cancer survivors reported decreased fatigue after biofield healing

Jain S. Cancer. 2011;doi:10.1002/cncr.26345.

Biofield healing demonstrated a significant decrease in reported cancer-related fatigue among breast cancer survivors; however, these results did not significantly differ from those of survivors who underwent mock healing.

Researchers conducted a blinded, randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of 4 weeks (eight 1-hour sessions) of biofield healing, specifically energy chelation. Seventy-six fatigued breast cancer survivors were randomly assigned to receive biofield healing or mock healing or to a waitlist control group.

Survivors self-reported fatigue on the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory. Over time, researchers observed a significant decrease on the total fatigue scale of the inventory for biofield healing vs. control (P<.0005) and a notable decrease in fatigue for mock healing vs. control (P=.02). They observed no significant change on the inventory for the control group and found no difference between biofield healing and mock healing (P=.12).

Biofield healing also demonstrated a significant difference in cortisol slope over time for biofield healing vs. both mock healing and control (P<.04).

Researchers also assessed whether treatment belief predicted outcomes and found that 75% of women receiving sessions believed they were receiving healing, regardless of assignment. They observed no significant differences between biofield healing and mock healing for treatment belief.

“Given that both active groups showed significant fatigue reductions but that belief did not predict fatigue ratings, results suggest that biofield healing effects on reducing fatigue may be partially because of nonspecific factors (e.g., scheduled rest, touch, clinical intervention),” the researchers wrote.

However, they did observe larger effect sizes for biofield healing on the general fatigue and mental fatigue subscales of the inventory compared with mock healing — suggesting “that biofield healing may be more effective in reducing fatigue than mock healing,” the researchers wrote. “This finding warrants further study for replication and examination of specific processes that may underlie biofield healing effects on fatigue.”

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