Dr. Jonas says the researchers couldn’t find any studies that compared massage with drug treatments, such as opiates.
He also says the group made a number of recommendations for future research on massage therapy that could lead to guidelines for its use in pain management. Those include standardizing treatments and measurements, and conducting high-quality research.
“It is our hope that the field of massage therapy will begin to critically think about and prioritize the field’s research needs to guide the development of a robust future research agenda,” write the authors of the editorial.