Effect of therapeutic touch on anxiety level of hospitalized patients

Effect of therapeutic touch on the anxiety of 90 volunteer male and female subjects between the ages of 21 and 65, hospitalized in a cardiovascular unit of a large medical center in New York City, was examined. The dependent variable, state anxiety, was defined as a transitory emotional state of the individual at a particular point and was measured by the Self-Evaluation Questionnaire x-1, developed by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene. Subjects were administered this tool pre- and postintervention. Three matched intervention groups were formed; each subject received an individual five-minute period of intervention by therapeutic touch, casual touch, or no touch. Subjects who received intervention by therapeutic touch experienced a highly significant (p < .001) reduction in state anxiety, according to a comparison of preposttest means on A-state anxiety using a correlated t ratio. Subjects who received intervention by therapeutic touch had a significantly (p < .01) greater reduction in posttest anxiety scores than subjects who received intervention by causal touch or no touch.