Modern Times

During World War One patients suffering from nerve injury or shell shock were treated with massage. St. Thomas's Hospital, London, had a department of massage until 1934. But during the 1930s and 1940s massage's influence decreased because of medical advancement and breakthroughs in medical technology and pharmacology. Physiotherapists began increasingly to favor electrical instruments over manual methods of stimulating the tissues. However, in many hospitals nurses continued to use massage for pain management and as a relaxation technique to aid sleep.

In the 1970s massage's influence grew once again with a notable rise among athletes and amongst people who were looking for alternative ways of living and self-care systems. It was not until the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta that massage was offered to athletes as part of the medical services provided. Today massage is used in intensive care units, for children, elderly people, babies in incubators, and patients with cancer, AIDS, heart attacks, and strokes. Most hospices have some kind of bodywork therapy available, and it is frequently offered in health centers, drug treatment clinics, and pain clinics http://www.holisticonline.com/massage/mas_history.htm. Tiffany Field (2000), Director of the Touch Research Institutes, University of Miami School of Medicine and Nova South-Eastern University, Florida, USA has conducted research into the safety and efficacy of massage. From her studies massage has been associated with increased growth in pre-term babies, increased attentiveness in young students with attention deficit disorder, a reduction in pain in a variety of situations ranging from burn patients to PMS, childbirth and headaches, a reduction in the intensity of symptoms of depression and anxiety, enhancement of immune function and beneficial modulations of symptoms in autoimmune conditions. Field’s work has been used as a guide for valid methods in education and has provided an evidence base for safe and effective practice. Nowadays, thanks to strict industry standards and regulation of practitioners, massage is a commonly accepted form of complementary medicine. Many people rely on massage to maintain good health and energy, to prevent illness, and for simple relief from stress and other consequences of life in the 21st century
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/history-massage.html.