The beneficial effects of therapeutic craniofacial massage on quality of life, mental health and menopausal symptoms and body image: A randomized controlled clinical trial

•This study determines the effect of massage in the craniofacial area in menopausal women after the treatment and one month after its completion.•Our results indicate that the techniques used have positive effects on mental health, quality of life and perception of body image.•This protocol constitutes a valid option for clinicians in the treatment of symptoms in the climacteric period. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of massage in the craniofacial area in menopausal women after the treatment and one month after its completion, and to measure its influence on quality of life in relation to symptoms of menopause, mental health, and body image perception. 50 participants with menopause, aged 45–65 years, participated in a single-blind randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: craniofacial massage group (CMG), who received massage treatment (n = 25), and control group (CG), without treatment (n = 25). Prior to randomization, all participants provided demographic and clinical information. Quality of life, mental health and body image perception were evaluated at three time points: at the beginning of the study, at the end, and one month after finishing the treatment. A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (RM-MANOVA) was used to determine if mean scores in the criteria differed significantly between time points within subjects. The results obtained indicate that the cranial massage techniques had a large, positive between-subjects effect on our three criteria (Wilks Λ = .83, F(3, 44) = 3.04, p.