Home Relaxation Techniques for Essential Hypertension

Abstract

A 10-week relaxation treatment focused on home practice and self-monitoring of blood pressure for the purpose of lowering blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension. Comparisons were made among relaxation (n = 13), relaxation in combination with electromyographic biofeedback (n = 14), and a control condition in which patients simply monitored their blood pressure (n = 14). These three groups of patients, all of which received antihypertensive medication, were compared with a fourth group that practiced relaxation without drug therapy (n = 17). Relaxation and relaxation/biofeedback were equally effective in reducing blood pressure recorded at home in the morning and evening and produced greater decreases than in the control group. Relaxation without drugs, although somewhat more effective than self-monitoring, did not reduce blood pressure as much as the two conditions in which medication was combined with relaxation. Although reductions over the course of treatment were noted in blood pressure recorded in the laboratory, the four treatment conditions did not differ significantly from one another.

Relaxation training for essential hypertension at the worksite: I. The untreated mild hypertensive.

“…This finding would be consistent with the findings of Goldstein and associates (20). The significantly larger worksite BP reductions observed in participants receiving cognitive restructuring is relevant in this regard because the emphasis of cognitive restructuring was on applying relaxation and cognitive stress-reducing procedures to specific situations in the natural environment.…”

“…In a recent study conducted by Goldstein and colleagues (20), comparisons were made among three treatment conditions: relaxation, relaxation and EMG biofeedback, and a monitoring-only control condition. The three groups showed no significant differences in reduction of blood M. A. CHESNEYetal.…”

Stress management techniques: Are they all equivalent, or do they have specific effects?

“…Agras and Jacob (1979) Frumkin et al (1978) Seer ( Patel et al (1981Patel et al ( , 1985 GSR FB + PR + meditation + stress education > standard medical treatment Richter-Heinrich et al (1984) RT + BP feedback + BP monitoring + physical exercise + psychoeducation > drug therapy with beta-receptor blockers Goldstein et al (1984) Drug therapy + RT + or EMG FB > drug therapy, nondrug therapy Comparative studies Fray (1975) AT > EMG bfk Longo (1984) Deep breathing > PR Blanchard et al (1984Blanchard et al ( , 1986 TBFK Goldstein et al (1982) BP Feedback > RT, self-monitoring Glasgow et al (1982) RT + BP feedback > RT, BP feedback MED > PR (nonhypertensive alcoholics) Sedlacek et al (1979) EMG + TMP bfk > MED Hafner (1982) MED + EMG-or-SC-BFK > MED Cohen and Sedlacek (1983) AT + PR + EMG and TBFK > MED English and Baker (1983) PR > MED (SBP)…”

Stress management approaches to the prevention of coronary heart disease

“…The simplest of such interventions may be the daily self-monitoring of blood pressure, as this typically results in a gradual decline of measured blood pressure of between 7 and 11 mmHg (Chesney, Black, Swan & Ward, 1987;Glasgow, Gaarder & Engel, 1982;Laughlin, Fisher & Sherrard, 1979) over periods of u p to one year. This reduction may equal that resulting from interventions such as relaxation when measurements are taken in the clinic, but not for measurements taken in the home (Goldstein, Shapiro & Thananopavaran, 1984) o r the workplace (Chesney et a/., 1987). The cause of such a lowering effect is unclear.…”