ArticleScientific reports2020
Standardized massage interventions as protocols for the induction of psychophysiological relaxation in the laboratory: a block randomized, controlled trial.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of traditional Chinese medicine nursing techniques combined with music-based interventions on sleep in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Neurophysiological approaches to exploring emotional responses to cosmetics: a systematic review of the literature.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Glucose as fuel for HPA axis regulation: A narrative review on energy metabolism, stress reactivity, and early life adversity.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Changes in emotional response towards different facial application gestures following skincare application: An electroencephalogram approach.International journal of cosmetic science · 2026Article
- The Effect of Massage Therapy on Anxiety Levels Experienced by Traditional-Aged Undergraduate Business Students.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2026Article
- The Effect of Self-Massage on Immune Function, Stress, and Quality of Life in Young Adults: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial.International journal of therapeutic massage & bodywork · 2026Article
- MASSAG model: Towards an integrative neuroscience framework linking emotional trauma, pain, and mechanisms of force-based manipulations.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Classical back massage is associated with lower heart rate and sustained mean skin conductance during recovery after cognitive load: an exploratory controlled pilot study.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Effect of sweet and caloric drinks on cardiac reactivity to slow-paced breathing in healthy adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Early life adversity blunts the subjective and physiological relaxation response in healthy adults.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Positive psychological effects of seated acupressure massage are associated with a rise in plasma oxytocin without affecting CGRP levels or circulating IL-6.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- 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 · 2024Review
- Brief Myofascial Intervention Modulates Visual Event-Related Potential Response to Emotional Photographic Contents: A Pilot Study.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Multimodal non-invasive non-pharmacological therapies for chronic pain: mechanisms and progress.BMC medicine · 2023Review
- Pediatric Tuina in children with autism spectrum disorder: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Trials · 2022Article
- Nature-Based Relaxation Videos and Their Effect on Heart Rate Variability.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Romantic partner embraces reduce cortisol release after acute stress induction in women but not in men.PloS one · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Health and disease are strongly linked to psychophysiological states. While stress research strongly benefits from standardized stressors, no established protocol focuses on the induction of psychophysiological relaxation. To maintain health, functioning regenerative systems are however likely as important as functioning stress systems. Thus, the identification of validated relaxation paradigms is needed. Here, we investigated whether standardized massages are capable of reliably inducing physiological and psychological states of relaxation. Relaxation was indicated by changes in high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), a vagally-mediated heart rate variability component, and repeated ratings of subjective relaxation, and stress levels. Sixty healthy women were randomly assigned to a vagus nerve massage (n = 19), a soft shoulder massage (n = 22), or a resting control group (n = 19). During the intervention, HF-HRV and subjective relaxation increased, while subjective stress decreased significantly in all groups. Both massage interventions elicited significantly higher HF-HRV compared to the control group. Accordingly, both massage protocols increased psychophysiological relaxation, and may serve as useful tools in future research. However, future work will have to determine which of several protocols might be used as a gold standard to induce a psychophysiological state of relaxation in the laboratory.
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