Holding Hands Eases Stress

A University of Virginia study of 16 married women who scored high on a marriage-satisfaction inventory showed that simply holding their husband's hand eased both physical sign of stress and their brains' responses to pain.

Researchers took magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the women's brains as they confronted the stress of a small electric shock in three instances: alone, holding a stranger's hand, and holding their husband's hand.

Simply holding a hand was enough to reduce physical symptoms of stress, researchers found, but only a husband's hand produced signs of stress and pain relief in the brain. The effects were most pronounced in couples who scored highest on the marriage inventory.

"If you are in a 'super couple,' hand-holding serves as a kind of analgesic," [professor and lead author James A. Coan] said.