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Related Experiment Videos

Touch relieves stress and pain

E Fishman1, E Turkheimer, D E DeGood

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Pennsylvania, USA.

Journal of Behavioral Medicine
|February 1, 1995
PubMed
Summary

Incidental touch in healthcare settings can slightly reduce pain and cardiovascular responses. However, these effects are small and not consistently observed in individuals over time.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Health Psychology
  • Behavioral Medicine

Background:

  • Limited research exists on the benefits of incidental touch in medical environments.
  • Physical contact is common in healthcare but its physiological impact is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effects of incidental touch on physiological and pain responses.
  • To determine if responses to touch are stable individual traits.

Main Methods:

  • 60 college students underwent laboratory sessions with conditions: baseline, touch (pulse palpation), stress (cold pressor test), and combined touch/stress.
  • Measured heart rate, blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), and subjective pain ratings.

Main Results:

  • Physical contact led to small, significant reductions in cardiovascular measures and pain ratings.
  • Individual responses to touch were not stable across the two testing sessions.

Conclusions:

  • Incidental touch offers a minor but significant benefit in reducing cardiovascular activity and perceived pain.
  • The tendency to respond physiologically to touch is not a stable individual characteristic in this context.

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