Tists. Nurses of a Ramoplanin nursing home for elderly people were trained on IT by three experts in physical touch therapies, complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) and qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews (week 1 and 4 of the intervention) and participatory observation with video recording were conducted with nurses applying and inhabitants receiving IT. All interviews were analysed using Qualitative Content Analysis, video recordings were analysed using Qualitative Visual Analysis. Results Six nurses and six patients were included in the study. During the treatment relaxation, well-being and the sensation of warmth were described by all participants. Patients said to feel no pain during the treatment and pain relief afterwards. Patients described better motivation, positive feelings, improved self-confidence and selfeffectiveness after the treatment whereas nurses described a feeling of empowerment and revaluation of their nursing work. An empathetic attention and an attitude of openness for the relationship between nurses and patients was said to be important. However, limited time resources including problems to finding time, continuity and reliability were challenges for IT integration in daily work. Conclusion Intentional Touch might be helpful to increase relaxation, well-being and pain relief for the elderly people suffering from chronic pain and to improve the patient-nurse relationships. IT needs more research to define its value in medical and clinical care. P155 In major depressive disorder, yoga and coherent breathing reduced depressive symptoms, increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and increased gama-aminobutyric acid Chris PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15303251 Streeter1,2, Patrica Gerbarg3, Marisa Silveri1,2, Richard Brown4, John Jensen2 1 Psychiatry, Boston University School of Mediicine, Boston, 02118, MA, United States; 2 Psychiatry, Harvard University, Belmont, CA, United States; 3 Psychiatry, New York Medical College, Valhalla, 10955, NY, United States; 4 Psychiatry, Columbia College of Surgeon, New York, NY, United States Correspondence: Chris Streeter BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2017, 17(Suppl 1):P155 Purpose To test The Vagal-GABA Theory in subjects with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), by measuring the effects of a yoga plus coherent breathing intervention on vagal activity, thalamic gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)/Creatine ratios (GABA/Cr), and depressive symptoms. Methods Subjects with MDD (n = 16) participated in a 12-week intervention, including 90-minutes of Iyengar yoga plus coherent breathing (at 5 breaths per minute) PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7766718 2? times per week and a 20-minute daily home practice. Baseline measures were: Beck Depression Inventory II (BDIII); respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as an indicator of vagal activity; and thalamic GABA/Cr using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). RSA and GABA levels were also obtained at the end of week 12 pre- and post- a 90-minute yoga plus coherent breathing intervention. Results From baseline to week 12, BDI-II scores decreased from 27.31 ?8.45 to 8.88 ?7.70 (F(1,15) = 91.47, p <0.001). After 12 weeks, acute increases in recovery RSA (post: 6.71 ?0.61 ?pre: 8.06 ?0.84) correlated with acute (post: 0.31 ?0.07 ?pre: 0.26 ?0.07) thalamic GABA/ Cr (Spearman"s rho(7) = 0.821, p = 0.023). Decreased BDI-II scores correlated with the total number of minutes of yoga plus CB per week. Conclusions This study supports the Vagal-GABA Theory by showing that in patients with MDD, a 12-week yoga plus coherent b.