• Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen, Michael Eggart, Henrik Norholt, Michael Gerlach, Gabriele Mariell Kiebgis, Michaela Maria Arnold, and Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg.
• Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland.
• Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. 2022 Feb 1; 147 (4): e32-e40.

AbstractSkin-to-skin-contact presents the earliest sensory experience of men and animals. Deprivation of age-relevant touch experiences during infancy results in compromised psychosocial and biological development. The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for the discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. Clinical studies have demonstrated the benefit of professional salutary touch for prevention and treatment of various illnesses. However, in the present practice of medicine the application of salutary touch does not meet adequate interest. Proposing a new medical discipline "Touch Medicine" we link the findings of modern touch research to clinical medicine. The treatment of depression which we conceive primarily as a disease afflicting the body will serve as an example to demonstrate the usefulness of touch therapy. Controlled studies and systematic reviews have convincingly shown antidepressive, anxiolytic and analgesic effects of salutary touch. The effectiveness and efficacy of touch therapy has also been demonstrated in many areas such as neonatology, pediatrics, oncology, and geriatrics. We discuss the underlying mechanisms on various explanatory levels including interoceptive and oxytocinergic mechanisms as well as the role of C tactile afferent nerve fibers.The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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