Non-verbal communication of compassion: measuring psychophysiologic effects.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Calm, compassionate clinicians comfort others. To evaluate the direct psychophysiologic benefits of non-verbal communication of compassion (NVCC), it is important to minimize the effect of subjects' expectation. This preliminary study was designed to a) test the feasibility of two strategies for maintaining subject blinding to non-verbal communication of compassion (NVCC), and b) determine whether blinded subjects would experience psychophysiologic effects from NVCC.

Methods

Subjects were healthy volunteers who were told the study was evaluating the effect of time and touch on the autonomic nervous system. The practitioner had more than 10 years' experience with loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a form of NVCC. Subjects completed 10-point visual analog scales (VAS

SUBMITTER: Kemper KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3260157 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature