SYMPOSIA Thursday, May 25, 11:00-12:30
Methodological Challenges in the Study of Mind-Body
Therapies and Energy Medicine
Speakers: Kevin Chen, PhD, MPH, Susan Lutgendorf, PhD,
Garrett Yount, PhD, Tianjun Liu, OMD
Although mind-body integrative therapies and
energy medicine have gained increased attention and popularity, little
scientific documentation can be found in the western literature about
their efficacy. Few studies of energy medicine have implemented traditional
double-blind randomization design, which generated criticism of existing
findings. However, researchers of energy medicine are confronted with
methodological challenges and have difficulty producing results based
on conventional research methods. Thus, there is a large gap between
the increased demand from consumers and physicians who want to know
more about these therapies and the available scientific evidence on
the effectiveness of them.
In this special session, researchers with first-hand
experience of clinical and laboratory studies of energy medicine will
present their "old" problems with new findings in an attempt to answer
some of the following challenges and questions:
1. Is it possible to implement double-blinded
clinical trials using healers of energy medicine?
2. How can the large variability in laboratory study of energy healing
be controlled?
3. How do researchers deal with potential experimenter effects, PSI
effects, and the special requests from the energy healer in a laboratory
study?
4. Can the randomization process cause instability of the healer's mood
that directly affects the research outcomes?
5. Can we effectively apply the modern scientific methods to study the
ancient internalized energy therapy and self-cultivation process?
6. Why is repeatability so difficult to achieve in the study of energy
medicine?
7. What are the most practical controls in the efficacy study of self-practice
energy therapy (such as meditation, guided imagery and Tai chi)?
8. What are the major conflicts in the clinical study of energy therapy
between traditional research protocol and the special requirements of
energy medicine?
Hopefully, through the proposed key presentations
and open discussion, the researchers, the funding agents, and other
healthcare professionals will gain a deeper understanding of these issues,
and make the research of mind-body therapies and energy medicine more
feasible, reasonable and productive.