Therapeutic touch and post-Hurricane Hugo stress.
This repeated-session design sought to answer questions about the effectiveness of therapeutic touch in reduction of stress for 23 individuals following a natural disaster. In addition, methodological issues related to the average length of time for a therapeutic-touch treatment and a method of documenting the nonverbal interaction between subject and toucher were investigated. Findings indicate that stressed people report themselves to be less stressed following therapeutic touch (p = .05). Time of therapeutic-touch intervention varied significantly between the touchers, with a range of 6.8 to 20 minutes. Qualitative data examining the interaction of toucher and subject raised a number of questions that require further study.
Olson
M
M
Sneed
N
N
Bonadonna
R
R
Ratliff
J
J
Dias
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000451:nursing* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014110:Touch