Touch: How it effectively relieves pain and fear!

Touch: How it effectively relieves pain and fear!

On March 14, 2025, the press release of the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) was awarded third place in the idw Prize for Science Communication 2024. The award ceremony took place on March 13th in Berlin. The excellent press release entitled “When and how touch is good” was written by RUB editor Meike Drießen and addresses the positive effect of touch on pain, depression and anxiety. These findings come from an interdisciplinary research team from Bochum, Duisburg-Essen and Amsterdam, which evaluated over 130 international studies involving around 10,000 participants.

The study shows that touch not only has positive emotional effects, but can also significantly help alleviate physical and psychological complaints. The greatest effect of touch on the mental state can be observed particularly in adults, where pain, depression and anxiety noticeably decreased. For children, especially infants, parental touch was found to be more effective than that of other caregivers. The study also found that frequent, brief touches are better for health, regardless of their duration.

Focus on science communication

The idw prize, which honors press releases with a high level of professionalism and outstanding news value, is endowed with prize money of 1,000 euros. This money can be used for quality assurance and improvement of communication work. Anja Braun, editor and reporter for science and education at SWR Wissen aktuell, praised the excellent press release for its clarity and structure. In 2024, the RUB created around 200 press releases, which led to around 2,000 media reports.

The RUB uses various channels to disseminate its research, including a news portal, the science magazine Rubin and social media channels. The award-winning press release was the most reported last year and resulted in over 400 media reports, which underlines the relevance and influence of the university's information work.

Research results in detail

The meta-analysis of touch shows that the positive effects go beyond reducing pain and also affect cardiovascular factors such as blood pressure and heart rate. These results were published April 8 in the journal Nature Human Behavior. Study author Julian Packheiser explains that intentional touch can lead to an improvement in well-being in both sick and healthy people.

The positive effects on mental health are remarkable. Adults show similar effects for touch from familiar people or professional caregivers, which is an interesting observation regarding the social dynamics of touch. It has also been found that touch from objects such as social robots or stuffed animals has physical benefits, but is less psychologically effective than human touch.

In summary, the results show that touch plays an important role in promoting well-being and should receive increased attention in both research and practical application. The RUB and its cooperation partners are providing impetus for future research and improving scientific communication.