A comprehensive study involving 212 studies and over 12,000 participants has shown that touch interventions can notably alleviate pain, depression, and anxiety.

Human touch, in particular, has a more significant effect on mental health, potentially due to the skin-to-skin contact, compared to non-human touch.

The analysis conducted by the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience indicates that touch improves both physical and mental health especially in individuals with pre-existing health issues.

The study suggests that the frequency of touch interventions is more crucial than who is touching, the manner of touch, or the length of the touch.

While object or robot interventions can also improve physical health, human touch has been found to be more effective for mental health.

Given the importance of touch, researchers advocate for further study into touch-based therapies, which may be particularly relevant during periods of reduced contact like the Covid-19 pandemic.

These findings could potentially transform healthcare practices, favoring touch or somatic therapies over traditional talking therapies in the future.