Holding hands to reduce stress (short article-good!)

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Dec. 20, 2006 -- In a happy marriage? Holding hands with your spouse may help

you reduce _stress_

(http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/hw/emotional_wellness/hw153409.asp)

That's what psychology experts from the University of Virginia found when

they studied happily married couples.

James Coan, PhD, and colleagues conducted the study, which included 16

happily married couples who were in their early 30s, on average.

First, the husbands and wives rated the quality of their marriages on a scale

of 0 to 151.

Scores lower than 100 were considered to be distressed marriages. To

participate in the study, both husbands and wives had to have high scores.

Among couples chosen for the study, the husbands' average score was 126; the

wives' average score was 127. That's a " generally high level of marital

quality, " the researchers write.

Holding Hands to Reduce Stress

The couples were told that the study was about holding hands -- and that mild

electric shocks would be involved.

The wives wore electrodes on their ankles and watched screens that warned

them when a shock was coming or assured them that they weren't due for a shock.

Meanwhile, the researchers scanned the wives' brains with functional magnetic

resonance imaging (fMRI). Coan's team had previously familiarized the

couples with the fMRI machine.

As predicted, when the wives knew they were due for a shock, their brain

scans showed activity in brain areas that handle threats.

But when the wives held their husbands' hands during the same threat, their

brain scans looked calmer than when they weren't holding hands.

Holding a Stranger's Hand

For comparison, the wives were also tested while holding the hand of an

unseen man they had never met.

While holding the stranger's hand, the wives' brain scans were less calm than

while holding their husbands' hand, but calmer than while not holding

anyone's hand.

The wives also rated how unpleasant and stressful each experiment had been.

They said that while they felt physically calmer while holding anyone's hand

-- spouse or stranger -- only holding their husband's hand made the tests

less unpleasant.

In short, holding the stranger's hand was better than holding no hand at all,

but holding their husband's hand was best.

That finding is in line with other research showing the benefits of social

connection, rather than isolation, and the importance of close emotional

relationships.

Good Marriage Counts

All of the couples in the study were happily married. But some rated their

marital quality higher than others.

The wives' brain scans showed that the effect of spousal handholding under

threat was greater in stronger relationships.

That is, the wives in the best marriages appeared to have the calmest brains

while holding their husbands' hands under threat.

The researchers didn't scan the husbands' brains. So it's not clear if

husbands' brains are soothed under stress while holding their wives' hands.

The findings may not apply to couples in less happy relationships, Coan's

team notes.

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SOURCES: Coan, J., Psychological Science, December 2006; vol 17: pp

1032-1039. News release, University of Virginia. Reuters