Swedish massage and abnormal reflexes of children with spastic cerebral palsy

30 Introduction: Massage therapy (MT) is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies (1). Studies indicate that parents are becoming increasingly more interested in CAM therapies, including MT, for their children. One study found that 33% of parents reported using CAM for their child within the past year, with MT being one of the most popular therapies (2). CAM is now frequently used, even in many medical settings [e.g. 49% of university-affiliated pain management centers in the US and Canada offer MT (3)], however pediatricians and other health care professionals are often not informed about the CAM therapies that are being used by their patients (2). Complementary medicine such as massage therapy has also been used in treatment of pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders. In one study (4) the frequency and type of CAM therapies used by families of 376 children with special health care needs (like cerebral palsy) were assessed. In general, this population of children used CAM at moderately high Original Article