Hot showers/baths may work as tranquilizers?

A recent theoretical paper suggests that hot hydrotherapy may have a sedative effect:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17640827

I can attest to that. When I am feeling bad I will draw up a warm bath and get in and cry out my feelings and then I feel so much better after. The crying alone usually works without needing a bath but the warm water makes me feel safe somehow.
Warm water too, not hot water. I know some people like really hot water but I tried that and it just made me feel woozy. So warm water works the best for me.

interestingly, the opposite treatment, exposure to cold repeated daily has been recently shown to also improve symptoms of patients with anxiety:

Rymaszewska J, Ramsey D, Chladzinska-Kiejna S. Whole-body cryotherapy as adjunct treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders. Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis. (Warsaw). 2008 Jan-Feb;56(1):63-68.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18250970