ArticleBrain sciences2020
Effects of Psychoactive Massage in Outpatients with Depressive Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Mixed-Methods Study.
Article in Brain sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Patients' experiences and perceived outcomes of manual therapy: a qualitative systematic review with framework synthesis.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- The role of affective touch in mental illness: a systematic review of CT fiber dysregulation in psychological disorders and the therapeutic potential of CT fiber stimulation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- FaReWell Depression - a randomized controlled trial of a physiotherapeutic program for the facial rehabilitation of wellbeing in depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Reduced Trust in Bodily Sensations Predicts Suicidal Ideation in Hospitalized Patients With Major Depression: An Observational Study.Suicide & life-threatening behavior · 2025Observational
- Article
- Unveiling the interoception impairment in various major depressive disorder stages.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 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
- Efficacy of traditional Thai massage as adjunctive therapy in patients with major depressive disorder.Health promotion perspectives · 2024Article
- Dysfunctional self-reported interoception predicts residual symptom burden of fatigue in major depressive disorder: an observational study.BMC psychiatry · 2023Observational
- [Touch Medicine - a complementary therapeutic approach exemplified by the treatment of depression].Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) · 2022Article
- Effects, Side Effects and Contraindications of Relaxation Massage during Pregnancy: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
- Article
- Psychomotor Predictive Processing.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- The Functional Psychotherapy Approach: A Process-Outcome Multiple Case Study.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Article
- Touch Research-Quo Vadis? A Plea for High-Quality Clinical Trials.Brain sciences · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
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 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.
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