Assessments
The participants completed the following assessments before and after the massage sessions on the first and last days of the 4 week study;1) vitas (1993) is a pre-post session pain assessment using a visual analog scale (vas) ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst possible pain) anchored with 5 faces. Acceptable scores for criterion-related validity have been established;2) perceived grip strength was measured on a 0-10 scale;3) the state anxiety in ventory (STAI) consists of 20 items on how the participant fells at the moment in terms of severity of anxiety from(1) not at all to very much so. Typical items include I feel nervous and I feel clam. The STAI has adequate concurrent validity and internal consistency (r=.83) the profile of mood states (POMS) is a 5 point likert rating scale on how well an adjective describes