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. 2024 Feb 23;19(2):e0298345.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298345. eCollection 2024.

CT-optimal touch and chronic pain experience in Parkinson's Disease; An intervention study

Larissa L Meijer  1 , Carla Ruis  1   2 , Zoë A Schielen  1 , H Chris Dijkerman  1 , Maarten J van der Smagt  1
Affiliations

CT-optimal touch and chronic pain experience in Parkinson's Disease; An intervention study

Larissa L Meijer et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

One of the most underdiagnosed and undertreated non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's Disease is chronic pain. This is generally treated with analgesics which is not always effective and can cause several side-effects. Therefore, new ways to reduce chronic pain are needed. Several experimental studies show that CT-optimal touch can reduce acute pain. However, little is known about the effect of CT-optimal touch on chronic pain. The aim of the current study is to investigate whether CT-optimal touch can reduce the chronic pain experience in Parkinson patients. In this intervention study, 17 Parkinson patients underwent three conditions; no touch, CT-optimal touch and CT non-optimal touch with a duration of one week each. During each touch week, participants received touch from their partners twice a day for 15 minutes. Results show that both types of touch ameliorate the chronic pain experience. Furthermore, it appears that it is slightly more beneficial to apply CT-optimal touch also because it is perceived as more pleasant. Therefore, we argue that CT-optimal touch might be used when immediate pain relief is needed. Importantly, this study shows that CT-optimal touch can reduce chronic pain in Parkinson's Disease and can be administered by a partner which makes it feasible to implement CT-optimal touch as daily routine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Outline of the intervention.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Color Analogue Scale.
Adapted from [34].
Fig 3
Fig 3. Faces Pain Scale-Revised.
Adapted from [35].
Fig 4
Fig 4. Scatterplot depicting FPS-R difference scores per day for CT-optimal touch—NT and CT non-optimal touch—NT.
The dots represent individual datapoints, the lines show the sample mean.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Scatterplot depicting the difference in FPS-R scores during touch (5, 10, 15min) compared to no touch (0min).
The dots represent individual datapoints, the lines show the sample mean.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

Funding was obtained by Meijer, Dijkerman and Smagt. There is no Grant number. The Dutch Stichting Parkinsonfonds offered the Grant. https://www.parkinsonfonds.nl/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.