Touch can help improve feelings of pain or depression, study suggests

Physical touch, such as a hug or even the sensation of a weighted blanket, could help improve physical and mental health, new research has found.

Touch from both humans and animals can reduce pain, feelings of depression, and anxiety in adults and children, according to the study.

The findings suggest touch is beneficial for physical and mental health  – both for healthy people and those in a clinical setting.

Writing in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the researchers say: “In conclusion, we show clear evidence that touch interventions are beneficial across a large number of both physical and mental health outcomes, for both healthy and clinical cohorts, and for all ages.

“These benefits, while influenced in their magnitude by study cohorts and intervention characteristics, were robustly present, promoting the conclusion that touch interventions can be systematically employed across the population to preserve and improve our health.”

Researchers conducted a review and analysis of 212 studies, involving a total of 12,966 people, to explore the health benefits of touch.

They found strong evidence of health benefits in adults who engaged in touch with other humans or objects – including robots and weighted blankets.

However, the largest mental health benefits were found when people touched other people, as opposed to touching objects.

Julian Packheiser, from Ruhr University, Germany, and colleagues, did not find differences in physical or mental health benefits in adults based on the type of touch, such as massage or hugging.

This same was also seen in newborns.

The study also suggests that the more often someone had physical contact with someone, the more beneficial it was.

According to the findings, touch was effective in improving the mental health of people, whether in hospital or not.

The authors also found improved health outcomes when the face or scalp was touched as opposed to other body parts such as the torso, and that touch in one direction was better than more haphazard touch.