The areas where there has been the most successful research are:
- Promoting relaxation
- Reducing anxiety
- Reducing stress and depression over time
- Reducing chronic pain
Areas that have so far have not found any benefit from Reiki
- Single sessions for one-off pain
Overall, there are a lot of interesting pilot studies that bring up areas where Reiki shows promise. Also, no studies have ever found a negative effect and participants don’t report side effects or drop out of studies.
However, there is very limited high-quality data, such as data from randomised controlled double-blind trials. Some systematic reviews have not been able to find enough high-quality studies to actually carry out the review. So its hard to be strongly confident in the data currently.
Studies
A phase II trial of reiki for the management of pain in advanced cancer patients
This study looked at 24 patients with cancer to see if Reiki affected the amount of pain they felt. 12 patients received their regular pain relief + two Reiki sessions, while the other 12 received their regular pain relief + rested after their pain relief, for a week.
The patient who received Reiki felt like they were in less pain and that their quality of life was better. Their blood pressure and pulse rate was also lower.
As this study is on a very small group of people, it needs to be tested on larger groups, and for longer periods of time, to be scientifically stronger. However, it’s interesting to note that one reason the study is smaller than intended is that many patients refused to take part unless they would get to be in the Reiki group!
The authors also note that “Reiki is now offered by volunteers, free of charge, on the inpatient palliative unit that was the primary recruitment site for this study.”
You can read the study here: https://www.jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(03)00334-8/fulltext
Effects of Reiki on Pain, Anxiety, and Blood Pressure in Patients Undergoing Knee Replacement (Pilot Study)
46 patients undergoing a knee replacement were split into 3 groups. One group received the usual care plus relaxation time, one group received Reiki, and the third group received Sham Reiki.
(Sham Reiki is pretend Reiki, carried out by an actor placing their hands in positions that a Reiki practitioner would use. It is used in some studies to reduce the chance of biases from participants’ expectations).
In this study, the group who received Reiki were in less pain 2 days after their surgery, and they had lower blood pressure. They also needed less pain medication and were discharged from hospital slightly earlier on average. (The people who weren’t in the Reiki group were also more likely to drop out of the study).
You can read the study here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28181973
Does Reiki benefit mental health symptoms above placebo. (2022)
This is a systematic review, which is a “study of studies”. They look at a group of existing studies on the same topic, to analyse how effective those studies are at answering their question, and to see what an overall answer to that question might be.
This systematic review looked at 14 different studies on using Reiki to help adults with symptoms of anxiety, stress, depression, or burnout.
It found that there was good-quality evidence that having multiple sessions of Reiki is helpful for people with clinically high levels of anxiety, stress, and depression. There was also some evidence that Reiki helped people dealing with burnout, but there need to be more studies on this to know how strong that effect is.
You can read the study here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.897312/full