ArticleBrain sciences2020
Effect of Psycho-Regulatory Massage Therapy on Pain and Depression in Women with Chronic and/or Somatoform Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
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, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of manual therapy on physical and mental health promotion in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled 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
- Reduced Trust in Bodily Sensations Predicts Suicidal Ideation in Hospitalized Patients With Major Depression: An Observational Study.Suicide & life-threatening behavior · 2025Observational
- Article
- Review
- Efficacy of traditional Thai massage as adjunctive therapy in patients with major depressive disorder.Health promotion perspectives · 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
- Dysfunctional self-reported interoception predicts residual symptom burden of fatigue in major depressive disorder: an observational study.BMC psychiatry · 2023Observational
- Applying an osteopathic intervention to improve mild to moderate mental health symptoms: a mixed-methods feasibility study protocol.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Social Touch: Its Mirror-like Responses and Implications in Neurological and Psychiatric Diseases.NeuroSci · 2023Review
- [Touch Medicine - a complementary therapeutic approach exemplified by the treatment of depression].Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) · 2022Article
- Article
- Massage Therapy for Fatigue Management in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Descriptive Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2021Review
- Touch Research-Quo Vadis? A Plea for High-Quality Clinical Trials.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- Introducing the Concept of Embodied Interconnectedness: Perspectives on Tactile Massage for Adolescents With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (adhd).Global advances in integrative medicine and healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
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 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.
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