Psychoimmunologic effects of therapeutic touch on practitioners and recently bereaved recipients: a pilot study.

The purposes of this descriptive pilot study were to address conceptual inconsistencies and several other methodologic problems identified in previous Therapeutic Touch (TT) research, while also providing direction for future TT studies by attempting to determine the appropriateness and suitability of a combination of psychologic and immunologic measures in the ongoing empiric evaluation of TT. Research questions were derived from a unitary perspective. Data on both practitioners and recipients were collected and examined for patterns and relationships. Changes that may be related to TT were observed in immunologic, psychologic, and unitary measures. Directions for future research within a unitary framework were postulated.