The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effects of Healing Touch (HT) on well-being and neuroendocrine function in individuals living with HIV disease. A total of 27 males completed the 4-week HT intervention. Each weekly HT session lasted 30 minutes and consisted of only the chakra connection, Because of the small sample size and the impact of gender on neuroendocrine and immune function, women were not included in this study Dependent variables included well-being as measured by three well-being and two psychological distress instruments, serum serotonin, salivary DHEA and cortisol, and a variety of enumerative and functional measures of immune function. A pretest-posttest design experimental design including a wait-list control group was used. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test the research hypotheses followed by univariate analysis of variance to detect the contribution of individual variables to the overall multivariate models. It was hypothesized that HT would increase participant well-being, serum serotonin and salivary DHEA; decrease salivary cortisol; and improve immune function in individuals living with HIV disease, All of the research hypotheses were rejected. Discussion of the results as well as directions for future research are presented.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-6394 |
| Date | 01 January 1999 |
| Creators | Wheeler Robins, Jo Lynne |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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