Large scientific study confirms benefits of physical touch
Premature babies particularly benefit from skin-to-skin contact, and women tend to react more strongly than men.
A hug, a handshake, a therapeutic massage. A newborn baby lying on his mother's bare chest.
Physical touch can promote well-being and ease pain, depression and anxiety, according to An in-depth new analysis of research published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
Researchers from Germany and the Netherlands systematically reviewed years of research about touching, caressing, cuddling and rubbing. They also combined data from 137 studies involving nearly 13,000 adults, children and infants. Each study compared individuals who had been physically touched in some way during an experience – or who had touched an object like a fuzzy stuffed toy – to similar individuals who had not. .
For example, one study showed that daily gentle massages of 20 minutes for six weeks in older adults with dementia decreased aggression and reduced levels of 'a stress marker in the blood. Another found that massages improved the moods of breast cancer patients. One study even showed that healthy young adults who petted a robotic seal pup were happier and experienced less pain from a mild thermal stimulus than those who read an article about an astronomer.
The positive effects were particularly visible in premature babies, who "improved significantly" from skin-to-skin contact, said Frédéric Michon, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience and one of the study authors.
“Many claims have been made that touch is good, touch is healthy, and touch is something we all need said Rebecca Boehme, a neuroscientist at Linkoping University in Sweden, who reviewed the study. for the review. "But in reality, no one had seen it from this broad, bird's eye perspective."
The analysis revealed interesting and sometimes mysterious patterns. Among adults, sick people showed greater mental health benefits of touch than healthy people. Who carried out the touching – a familiar person or a health worker – did not matter. But the source of contact mattered to the newborns.
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Premature babies particularly benefit from skin-to-skin contact, and women tend to react more strongly than men.
A hug, a handshake, a therapeutic massage. A newborn baby lying on his mother's bare chest.
Physical touch can promote well-being and ease pain, depression and anxiety, according to An in-depth new analysis of research published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
Researchers from Germany and the Netherlands systematically reviewed years of research about touching, caressing, cuddling and rubbing. They also combined data from 137 studies involving nearly 13,000 adults, children and infants. Each study compared individuals who had been physically touched in some way during an experience – or who had touched an object like a fuzzy stuffed toy – to similar individuals who had not. .
For example, one study showed that daily gentle massages of 20 minutes for six weeks in older adults with dementia decreased aggression and reduced levels of 'a stress marker in the blood. Another found that massages improved the moods of breast cancer patients. One study even showed that healthy young adults who petted a robotic seal pup were happier and experienced less pain from a mild thermal stimulus than those who read an article about an astronomer.
The positive effects were particularly visible in premature babies, who "improved significantly" from skin-to-skin contact, said Frédéric Michon, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience and one of the study authors.
“Many claims have been made that touch is good, touch is healthy, and touch is something we all need said Rebecca Boehme, a neuroscientist at Linkoping University in Sweden, who reviewed the study. for the review. "But in reality, no one had seen it from this broad, bird's eye perspective."
The analysis revealed interesting and sometimes mysterious patterns. Among adults, sick people showed greater mental health benefits of touch than healthy people. Who carried out the touching – a familiar person or a health worker – did not matter. But the source of contact mattered to the newborns.
We are having difficulty retrieving the content of the article.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode, please exit and log in to your Times account, or subscribe to the entire Times.
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