Objective-Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an increasingly popular practice demonstrated to alleviate stress and treat certain health conditions. MBSR may reduce elevated blood pressure (BP). Treatment guidelines recommend lifestyle modifications for BP in the prehypertensive range (SBP 120-139 or DBP 80-89), followed by antihypertensives if BP reaches hypertensive levels. MBSR has not been thoroughly evaluated as a treatment for prehypertension. A randomized clinical trial of MBSR for high BP was conducted to determine whether BP reductions associated with MBSR exceed those observed for an active control condition consisting of progressive muscle relaxation training (PMR).Methods-56 men (43%) and women (57%) averaging 50.3 (SD = 6.5) years of age (91% Caucasian) with unmedicated BP in the prehypertensive range were randomized to 8 weeks of

Objectives: To determine the effect of guided imagery (GI) on functional outcomes of total knee replacement (TKR), explore psychological and neuroimmune mediators, and assess feasibility of study implementation. Design: Investigator-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study. Settings: Hospital, surgeon's office, participant's home. Participants: 82 persons undergoing TKR. Interventions: Audiorecordings of TKR-specific GI scripts or placebo-control audiorecordings of audiobook segments. Outcome measures: Gait velocity and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) Function scale.Results: Outcomes for 58 participants (29 receiving GI and 29 controls) were analyzed at 6 months after surgery. The most frequent reason for noncompletion was protocol-driven exclusion at 6 months for having the contralateral knee replaced before the study endpoint (n = 15). With imaging ability as a moderator, gait velocity, but not WOMAC Function score, was significantly improved at 6 months in the GI group. Participants in the GI group, but not the control group, had lower WOMAC Pain scores at 3 weeks after surgery than at baseline. Hair cortisol concentration was significantly lower at 6 months after surgery than at baseline in the GI group but not the control group. GI group participants had lower treatment adherence but greater treatment credibility than the control group. Conclusion: Randomized controlled trials of GI in the TKR population are feasible, but inclusion/exclusion criteria influence attrition. Further studies are needed to elaborate this study's findings, which suggest that guided imagery improves objective, but not patient-reported, outcomes of TKR. Hair cortisol concentration results suggest that engagement in a time-limited guided imagery intervention may contribute to stress reduction even after the intervention is terminated. Further investigation into optimal content and dosing of GI is needed.

No abstract

Thirty male undergraduates received intense provocation following their ingestion of one of three doses of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The subjects in the low-dose condition tended to respond in a more aggressive manner than the subjects in the moderate-and high-dose conditions. The subjects in the high-dose condition behaved in a relatively nonaggressive manner throughout the experimental session.