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Biofield Therapies: Guidelines for Reporting Clinical Trials
Richard Hammerschlag1,2, Meredith Sprengel3, Ann L Baldwin4
1Consciousness and Healing Initiative, San Diego, CA, USA.
Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health
|February 2, 2024
Summary
New guidelines, Biofield Therapies: Reporting Evidence Guidelines (BiFi REGs), enhance transparency for clinical trials of biofield therapies like Reiki. These guidelines supplement existing standards to improve reporting and replication of study findings.
Area of Science:
- Integrative and Complementary Medicine
- Clinical Trial Methodology
- Evidence-Based Practice
Background:
- Systematic reviews highlight the need for improved transparency in reporting biofield therapy clinical trials.
- Existing reporting standards may not fully capture the nuances of biofield therapies such as External Qigong, Healing Touch, Reiki, and Therapeutic Touch.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce the Biofield Therapies: Reporting Evidence Guidelines (BiFi REGs) to enhance the quality of reporting for clinical trials involving biofield therapies.
- To supplement the CONsolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) 2010 guidelines with specific considerations for biofield therapy interventions.
Main Methods:
- Development involved a core group, a two-round Delphi process with international experts, and panels including editors of complementary and integrative medicine journals.
- The BiFi REGs include a 15-item Intervention checklist and proposed modifications to two other CONSORT topic areas.
- Explanations and reporting exemplars from published biofield therapy trials are provided for each item.
Main Results:
- The BiFi REGs provide specific guidance for reporting biofield therapy interventions.
- The guidelines aim to increase the clarity and completeness of trial reporting.
- Modifications to CONSORT address the unique aspects of biofield therapy research.
Conclusions:
- The BiFi REGs are expected to expedite the peer review process for biofield therapy trials.
- Implementation of BiFi REGs is anticipated to facilitate trial replication.
- These guidelines will help inform clinical practice decisions regarding biofield therapies.
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