Introduction: Osteopathy relies on a touch-based approach to promote health. This narrative review aims to analyze the role of touch in clinical osteopathic practice.

Methods: A database search was conducted using MEDLINE, EMBASE, PEDro and Google Scholar. Peer-reviewed papers without specifying limits on dates and design were included.

Results: 47 articles met the inclusion criteria and were used to elucidate two main themes: Biological and psychological effects of touch; Touch in the context of osteopathic clinical reasoning.

Discussion: Touch is one of the tools to achieve a collaborative interaction with the patient, to substantiate clinical information, and to detect somatic dysfunctions: neuro-myofascial active areas that might act as an osteopath-patient interface to transmit the biological and physiological effects of touch.

Conclusion: The findings of the review support a shared decision-making process, in which touch is one of the osteopath-patient dyad 's leading communication tools to develop a tailor-made osteopathic approach.