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Brain Sciences
Special Issues

Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and

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Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychiatric Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 38299

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Interests: psychopharmacology; depression; lithium; suicide; psychoactive massage
Mr. Michael Eggart

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Faculty Social Work, Health and Nursing, Hochschule Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences, 88250 Weingarten, Germany
Interests: depression; interoception; massage; touch; mental health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Touch is one of the fundamental ways of interpersonal communication. Druing the last decades scientific efforts have been devoted to establish the significance of touch in the treatment of mental disorders and also to clarify the underlying mechanisms. In the upcoming special issue of Brain Sciences “The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry: Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches” new clinical and experimental findings in this rapidly expanding area of research are going to be published. We kindly invite you to contribute to this project by submitting articles related to your ongoing clinical or experimental research. Papers discussing general/theoretical aspects of various kinds of touch in the treatment of e.g. depresson, anxiety or chronic pain will be welcomed as well.

Prof. Dr. med. Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen

Michael Eggart, MA.


Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords


  • touch
  • massage
  • mental disorders
  • interoception
  • pain
  • C tactile afferents

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

5 pages, 210 KiB  
Editorial
Touch Research–Quo Vadis? A Plea for High-Quality Clinical Trials
by Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen and Michael Eggart
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(1), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11010025 - 28 Dec 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2923
Abstract
Recently, the issue of a lack of interpersonal touch has gained much public interest due to the social distancing ordered by the authorities in the present pandemic situation [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches

)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

13 pages, 951 KiB  
Article
Effect of Psycho-Regulatory Massage Therapy on Pain and Depression in Women with Chronic and/or Somatoform Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial
by Sabine B.-E. Baumgart, Anja Baumbach-Kraft and Juergen Lorenz
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(10), 721; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10100721 - 12 Oct 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5405
Abstract
Chronic unspecific back pain (cBP) is often associated with depressive symptoms, negative body perception, and abnormal interoception. Given the general failure of surgery in cBP, treatment guidelines focus on conservative therapies. Neurophysiological evidence indicates that C-tactile fibers associated with the oxytonergic system can [...] Read more.
Chronic unspecific back pain (cBP) is often associated with depressive symptoms, negative body perception, and abnormal interoception. Given the general failure of surgery in cBP, treatment guidelines focus on conservative therapies. Neurophysiological evidence indicates that C-tactile fibers associated with the oxytonergic system can be activated by slow superficial stroking of the skin in the back, shoulder, neck, and dorsal limb areas. We hypothesize that, through recruitment of C-tactile fibers, psycho-regulatory massage therapy (PRMT) can reduce pain in patients with cBP. In our study, 66 patients were randomized to PRMT or CMT (classical massage therapy) over a 12-week period and tested by questionnaires regarding pain (HSAL= Hamburger Schmerz Adjektiv Liste; Hamburg Pain adjective list), depression (BDI-II = Beck depression inventory), and disability (ODI = Oswestry Disability Index). In all outcome measures, patients receiving PRMT improved significantly more than did those receiving CMT. The mean values of the HSAL sensory subscale decreased by −51.5% in the PRMT group compared to −6.7% in the CMT group. Depressive symptoms were reduced by −55.69% (PRMT) and −3.1% (CMT), respectively. The results suggest that the superiority of PRMT over CMT may rely on its ability to activate the C-tactile fibers of superficial skin layers, recruiting the oxytonergic system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches

)
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18 pages, 1510 KiB  
Article
Effects of Psychoactive Massage in Outpatients with Depressive Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Mixed-Methods Study
by Michaela Maria Arnold, Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen, Norbert Hemrich and Dominikus Bönsch
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(10), 676; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10100676 - 26 Sep 2020
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 7484
Abstract
The clinical picture of depressive disorders is characterized by a plethora of somatic symptoms, psychomotor retardation, and, particularly, anhedonia. The number of patients with residual symptoms or treatment resistance is high. Touch is the basic communication among humans and animals. Its application professionally [...] Read more.
The clinical picture of depressive disorders is characterized by a plethora of somatic symptoms, psychomotor retardation, and, particularly, anhedonia. The number of patients with residual symptoms or treatment resistance is high. Touch is the basic communication among humans and animals. Its application professionally in the form of, e.g., psychoactive massage therapy, has been shown in the past to reduce the somatic and mental symptoms of depression and anxiety. Here, we investigated the effects of a specially developed affect-regulating massage therapy (ARMT) vs. individual treatment with a standardized relaxation procedure, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), in 57 outpatients with depression. Patients were given one ARMT or PMR session weekly over 4 weeks. Changes in somatic and cognitive symptoms were assessed by standard psychiatric instruments (Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) and the Bech–Rafaelsen–Melancholia–Scale (BRMS)) as well as a visual analogue scale. Furthermore, oral statements from all participants were obtained in semi-structured interviews. The findings show clear and statistically significant superiority of ARMT over PMR. The results might be interpreted within various models. The concept of interoception, as well as the principles of body psychotherapy and phenomenological aspects, offers cues for understanding the mechanisms involved. Within a neurobiological context, the significance of C-tactile afferents activated by special touch techniques and humoral changes such as increased oxytocin levels open additional ways of interpreting our findings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches

)
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11 pages, 356 KiB  
Article
Does the Therapist’s Sex Affect the Psychological Effects of Sports Massage?—A Quasi-Experimental Study
by Bernhard Reichert
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(6), 376; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10060376 - 16 Jun 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6132
Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the sex of the therapist and of the athlete on the athlete’s current emotional state after a sports massage. The assumption was that the effect of a massage on the [...] Read more.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the sex of the therapist and of the athlete on the athlete’s current emotional state after a sports massage. The assumption was that the effect of a massage on the current mood was independent of the sex of the therapists or athletes. Background: Sports massages are an integral part of the support given to athletes during training or competition and are a commonly used method for promoting athletes’ physical and mental recovery. Few studies have measured the mental characteristics or even the nonspecific effects of sports massages. Sexual attraction or dislike are among the nonspecific effects of a treatment. Materials and methods: One hundred and sixty-eight high-performance male and female amateur athletes received a sports massage from 15 male and female trained therapists. The current emotional state of the athletes was measured before and after intervention using the BSKE-EA17 adjective scale, whose items can be assigned to five categories of the current emotional state. ANOVAs (analysis of covariances) were carried out to calculate the interactions between the sexes. Cohen’s d for similar group sizes and similar group variances were determined. Results: Neither the sex of the therapist nor the sex of the athlete had any influence on the mental effect of a sports massage. The only exception was when male athletes were treated by female therapists, where an increase in “elevated mood” was observed. Sports massages resulted in an increase in the responses in the categories “elevated mood” (d = 1.1) and “level of activation” (d = 0.3) and a decrease in the responses for “low mood” (d = 0.3), “level of deactivation” (d = 0.6) and “level of excitation” after the massage compared to before the massage (d = 0.9). Conclusions: Sports massages appear to increase the positive dimensions of the athletes’ current emotional state and reduce the negative dimensions. The self-reported mood changes from before the massage to after the massage were not influenced by other prognostic variables, including wait time, age of the athlete or the duration of the run. The results suggest that the specific effects of sports massages on the mental status are supported. Disregarding the aspect of the therapists’ sex, sports officials, trainers and athletes therefore can be more independent in the personnel planning of sports therapists. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches

)
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14 pages, 1420 KiB  
Article
Anhedonia to Gentle Touch in Fibromyalgia: Normal Sensory Processing but Abnormal Evaluation
by Rebecca Boehme, Helene van Ettinger-Veenstra, Håkan Olausson, Björn Gerdle and Saad S. Nagi
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(5), 306; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10050306 - 18 May 2020
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 5886
Abstract
Social touch is important for interpersonal interaction. Gentle touch and slow brushing are typically perceived as pleasant, the degree of pleasantness is linked to the activity of the C-tactile (CT) fibers, a class of unmyelinated nerves in the skin. The inability to experience [...] Read more.
Social touch is important for interpersonal interaction. Gentle touch and slow brushing are typically perceived as pleasant, the degree of pleasantness is linked to the activity of the C-tactile (CT) fibers, a class of unmyelinated nerves in the skin. The inability to experience pleasure in general is called anhedonia, a common phenomenon in the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. Here, we studied the perception and cortical processing of gentle touch in a well-characterized cohort of fibromyalgia. Patients and controls participated in functional brain imaging while receiving tactile stimuli (brushing) on the forearm. They were asked to provide ratings of pleasantness of the tactile stimulus and ongoing pain. We found high distress, pain catastrophizing, and insomnia, and a low perceived state of health in fibromyalgia. Further, patients rated both slow (CT-optimal) and fast (CT-suboptimal) brushing as less pleasant than healthy participants. While there was no difference in brain activity during touch, patients showed deactivation in the right posterior insula (contralateral to the stimulated arm) during pleasantness rating and activation during pain rating. The opposite pattern was observed in healthy participants. Voxel-based morphometry analysis revealed reduced grey matter density in patients, in the bilateral hippocampus and anterior insula. Our results suggest anhedonia to gentle touch in fibromyalgia with intact early-stage sensory processing but dysfunctional evaluative processing. These findings contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying anhedonia in fibromyalgia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches

)
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Review

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18 pages, 1984 KiB  
Review
Keeping in Touch with Mental Health: The Orienting Reflex and Behavioral Outcomes from Calatonia
by Anita Ribeiro Blanchard and William Edgar Comfort
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(3), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10030182 - 22 Mar 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 9146
Abstract
Physical and psychological therapy based on touch has been gradually integrated into broader mental health settings in the past two decades, evolving from a variety of psychodynamic, neurobiological and trauma-based approaches, as well as Eastern and spiritual philosophies and other integrative and converging [...] Read more.
Physical and psychological therapy based on touch has been gradually integrated into broader mental health settings in the past two decades, evolving from a variety of psychodynamic, neurobiological and trauma-based approaches, as well as Eastern and spiritual philosophies and other integrative and converging systems. Nevertheless, with the exception of a limited number of well-known massage therapy techniques, only a few structured protocols of touch therapy have been standardized and researched to date. This article describes a well-defined protocol of touch therapy in the context of psychotherapy—the Calatonia technique—which engages the orienting reflex. The orienting reflex hypothesis is explored here as one of the elements of this technique that helps to decrease states of hypervigilance and chronic startle reactivity (startle and defensive reflexes) and restore positive motivational and appetitive states. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Depression and Anxiety: The Significance of Touch in Psychiatry—Clinical and Neuroscientific Approaches

)
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