Biofield therapies: Helpful or full of hype?
Biofield therapies, which claim to use subtle energy to stimulate the body's healing process, are promising complementary interventions for reducing the intensity of pain in a number of conditions, reducing anxiety for hospitalised patients and reducing agitated behaviours in dementia, over and above what standard treatments can achieve. However, longer-term effects are less clear. Dr Shamini Jain, from the UCLA Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, and Dr Paul Mills, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, and the Moores Comprehensive Cancer Centre in San Diego, US, publish their review of the science behind biofield therapies online this week in Springer's International Journal of Behavioural Medicine...