Complementary and Integrative Health

Trial Outcomes for Massage - Care Ally-Assisted vs. Therapist Treated (TOMCATT) Study: Challenges and Early Findings

by Matt Bair, MD, MS
Seminar date: 3/18/2021

Description: Abstract: TOMCATT began as a 3-armed, randomized controlled effectiveness trial of two massage therapy delivery approaches for chronic neck pain over 6 months. The primary aim of the study aim was to compare massage therapist applied massage (TT-M) and care-ally assisted massage (CA-M) to a wait-list control group (WL-C) for pain-related disability. Prior to pausing TOMCATT research activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study design was modified to a 2-arm study. The CA-M arm was removed due to recruitment and adherence challenges. TOMCATT is still an active study waiting to restart from the necessary COVID-related pause and has 34 more study participants to recruit. Target audience: The target audience includes clinicians, researchers, or policy makers interested in studies of complementary and integrative health, particularly massage therapy for this presentation

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