Don’t take my Kodachrome away . . .

Anyone who has ever been seriously ill or injured knows the comfort that comes from having a loved one at the bedside. And indeed studies have shown that a spouse’s loving touch can literally diminish a patient’s pain. Now a team of UCLA psychologists has taken this idea one step further, asking: Is it possible that merely having a photograph of one’s spouse might have the same therapeutic effect?

Sarah Master and her colleagues recruited a group of women, all in long-term relationships, for a laboratory study of this provocative idea. After testing the women to determine their normal pain threshold, the researchers inflicted mild but unpleasant pain under a variety of circumstances: while holding their husband’s hand; while holding a male stranger’s hand; while viewing the stranger’s photograph; or while viewing their husband’s photo. They also ran some control situations, like squeezing a ball looking at a snapshot of a chair.

The psychologists varied the intensity of the pain, and in each situation the women rated their discomfort. Not surprisingly, the women had significantly less pain when holding their husband’s hand than when holding a stranger’s hand or a ball. But intriguingly, they also found (and report on-line in the journal Psychological Science) that viewing their husband’s photo salved their pain best of all—even slightly better than having a hand-holding husband at the bedside.

Apparently, a photo of a loved is enough to trigger memories and unconscious associations of being loved and supported. Using photographs this way could obviously benefit patients whose spouses are unable to be at the bedside for whatever reason. But it also raises the possibility that, in cases where the spouse is fussy or nervous or just a nuisance, the photo might be a preferable bedside companion.