Touch medicine: bridging the gap between recent insights from touch research and clinical medicine and its special significance for the treatment of affective disorders

McGlone Francis , Uvnäs Moberg Kerstin , Norholt Henrik , Eggart Michael , Müller-Oerlinghausen Bruno, ‘Touch medicine: bridging the gap between recent insights from touch research and clinical medicine and its special significance for the treatment of affective disorders’, Frontiers in Psychiatry 15, 2024

The effectiveness and safety of touch therapy can be regarded as sufficiently proven within a broad spectrum of medical indications from neonatology to geriatrics and palliative medicine, especially also in the field of psychiatry/psychosomatics and clinical psychology. The studies performed in patients with mental disorders uniformly show a decrease of depressive mood and anhedonia as well as unrest and bodily complaints including pain without the risk of adverse effects. Nevertheless we are still in need of further clinical studies particularly focusing also on long-term effects and respecting modern methodological requirements.