Healing Touch Prior to Cardiac Rehab

The purpose of the investigators proposed randomized, controlled study is to examine the effect of 6 one hour treatments of Healing Touch (HT) over 3 weeks on post-cardiac event patients, while they wait to enter a Cardiac Rehab (CR) program.Patients enrolled in the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine (SCIM) Cardiac Rehab Program typically experience a waiting period of 3 weeks, or sometimes more, before starting the program. Secondary aims of the proposed study are to evaluate the effect of HT on CR program outcome measures of METs, BMI, physical and mental well-being, and attendance in this population. New participants in the CR program who qualify and agree to participate in the study will be consented and randomly assigned to the Intervention Group who will receive Healing Touch therapy, or to the Control Group, which will not receive HT. At baseline both groups will complete the Dartmouth Quality of Life and SF-36 Health Surveys. The questionnaires will be repeated at the end of the 3 week study period and at the end of the 3 months SCIM CR program. An effect size of 15% was chosen, with an alpha level of 0.05, 80% power, 95% confidence level, and using a two-tailed test, it was determined that a sample size of 56 patients in each group would be needed for between group comparisons. To account for potential attrition the study will enroll 124 subjects, 62 in each group. Our rationale is that Healing Touch, in addition to standard medical care will reduce post-cardiac event stress and anxiety symptoms in patients waiting to enter a cardiac rehab program, as measured by the Dartmouth Quality of Life Index and the SF36 questionnaire. Further, the investigators suggest that Healing Touch treatments will improve patient's final outcomes of the 12 week CR program.