Effects of manual lymph drainage for abdomen on the brain activity of subjects with psychological stress.
Jung-Myo Shim, Young-Ran Yeun, Hye-Young Kim and 1 others
PMID 28356638WHAT IT FOUND
In 28 stressed adults, manual lymph drainage on neck, shoulder and abdomen showed higher alpha (relaxation) and lower gamma (arousal) brain-wave measures than abdominal massage alone.
No rest control, so cannot prove either treatment worked.
Key findings
01Twenty-eight adults with high stress scores were randomly allocated to 14 receiving manual lymph drainage and 14 receiving abdominal massage.
02After 20 minutes, the manual lymph drainage group (neck, shoulder, and abdominal strokes) had significantly higher post-session average absolute alpha power than the abdominal massage group (2.83 vs 2.64 μV²).
03The manual lymph drainage group also had significantly higher relative alpha power (0.22 vs 0.18) and lower relative gamma power (0.16 vs 0.17) than the abdominal massage group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 28 adults completed the study, all selected for high stress scores and mostly female, so it says little about older adults, men, or people with medical conditions. No rest-only control group was included, so the study cannot separate massage effects from simply lying quietly in a dark room. The manual lymph drainage protocol included neck, shoulder, and abdominal strokes, so any effect cannot be attributed to abdominal manual lymph drainage alone. The outcomes were EEG measures immediately after a 20-minute session, not stress, anxiety, function, or long-term benefit. The paper does not report blinding, and the authors say more subjects and stricter environment control are needed.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that abdominal manual lymph drainage treats psychological stress. The manual lymph drainage protocol also included neck and shoulder strokes, and the study had no rest-only control, so it cannot show that abdomen-only manual lymph drainage reduced stress.