The effectiveness of massage for reducing anxiety and depression in pregnant women.

The present study critically appraised and synthesized the best available evidence on the effectiveness of massage in reducing antenatal women's anxiety and/ or depression.

It enrolled pregnant women over 18 years of age who receive massage interventions.

The review included eight studies, of which seven were randomized controlled trials. It collected data from pregnant women's self-reported ratings of anxiety or depression using validated tools. 

Meta-analysis of four studies showed a moderate effect of massage therapy on women's depressive symptoms as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) compared with usual care. It also found a moderate effect of massage interventions on women's anxiety based on five studies using various measures compared to usual care. However, none of the trials had a low risk of bias.

This review illustrates the importance of Non-pharmacologic treatments for mental health symptoms for women during pregnancy. These findings indicate that massage therapy might be superior to usual care in reducing pregnant women's anxiety and depression, although the current results may be prone to bias. Further high-quality research must confirm the impact of massage therapy on pregnant women's mental health symptoms in the immediate and also long term.

Furthermore, Massage therapy can be implicated in practice as an acceptable and feasible approach for pregnant women to reduce their anxiety and depressive symptoms. More research evidence examining the safety and effectiveness of massage is needed before making practice recommendations.

Hall HG, Cant R, Munk N, et al. The effectiveness of massage for reducing pregnant women's anxiety and depression; systematic review and meta-analysis. Midwifery. 2020; 90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2020.102818.