The effectiveness of therapeutic touch: a meta-analytic review

CRD COMMENTARY: The review includes a clear objective and the inclusion criteria are reported. Only studies published between 1986 and 1996 were included in the review and some important information may have been excluded. Unpublished dissertation abstracts were excluded from the meta-analysis. However, their findings were presented separately and it is therefore possible to assess how their inclusion would affect the overall results. The possible influence of publication bias was also investigated. The author does not report how many reviewers were involved in selecting studies for inclusion and data extraction or how this was undertaken. The author assessed the quality of included studies using a validity tool. Relevant details of included studies were presented in tabular format, although the information relating to the intervention was limited. The author discussed the heterogeneity between the studies in a narrative. Considering the extent of the heterogeneity it may have been inappropriate to pool the studies. The author's conclusions seem to follow from the results.