Application of electromyographic biofeedback to the relaxation training of schizophrenic, neurotic, and tension headache patients.

Examined the effects of EMG biofeedback on tension reduction by schizophrenic, neurotic, and tension headache patients. 14 patients (mean age 39 yrs) participated voluntarily in at least 10 weekly EMG biofeedback sessions at a public outpatient clinic. All had complained of chronic tension. Ss showed significant decreases in their muscle tension levels with successive biofeedback training sessions. No significant differences were found between the schizophrenic, neurotic, and tension headache groups. A further contribution is the finding that patients with diverse socioeconomic and educational levels benefited similarly from EMG biofeedback training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of biofeedback-based relaxation on stuttering during reading and spontaneous speech.

Conducted 3 studies to develop methodology for using biofeedback to reduce stuttering by teaching relaxation of speech-related muscles. A total of 19 stutterers (mean ages 22.1–24.6 yrs) participated in 8–25 1-hr sessions. In Study 1, 7 Ss learned voluntary relaxation of the masseter muscles, and stuttering was essentially eliminated while reading units of 1–4 syllables. Study 2 attempted to enhance the generalization of fluency by training 6 Ss to develop their own internal cues for relaxation. Fluency generalized well to periods of no feedback, but relaxation generalized much less well. In Study 3, which specifically attempted to enhance the generalization of relaxation, 6 Ss were successfully trained to generalize both relaxation and fluency skills to spontaneous speech periods of up to 4-word units involving no feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Broad-spectrum behavioral treatment for chronic alcoholics: Effects of training controlled drinking skills.

Evaluated drinking skills training for 62 male chronic alcoholic veterans (mean age 46.1 yrs) by assigning 10 successive cohorts to trained or untrained conditions in a randomized block experimental design. All Ss received broad-spectrum behavioral treatment consisting of alcohol education, group therapy, individual therapy, self-management training, job-seeking and interpersonal-skills training, drink-refusal-skills training, and relaxation training. Cohorts assigned to the controlled drinking skills condition received 15 hrs of blood-alcohol-level discrimination training, responsible-drinking-skills training, and social-drinking practice sessions. Six-month posttreatment follow-up revealed that Ss in the drinking skills condition had significantly fewer abstinent days and more abusive drinking days than Ss in the untrained condition. Differences between groups were not significant in follow-up Months 7–22, although trends continued. No differences were obtained on moderate drinking days or any adjunctive measures of psychosocial adjustment. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home relaxation practice in hypertension treatment: Objective assessment and compliance induction.

50 Ss (mean age 51.1 yrs) with essential hypertension were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: individualized relaxation, group relaxation (GR), GR plus contingency contracting (CC) for home practice, or a waiting list. Treated Ss were given tape players and relaxation tapes and were instructed to practice daily for 10 wks. Unknown to the Ss, the tape players had a concealed capacity to electronically monitor the amount of relaxation practice. All relaxation conditions showed significantly greater reductions in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure than waiting-list controls but did not differ from each other. Monitored relaxation predicted systolic but not diastolic changes. Self-reports exceeded monitored practice by 91%, and only 32% of the Ss averaged 1 practice/day. GR plus CC Ss showed the lowest rate of practice across most weeks. Rated self-efficacy, age, and pretreatment expectations of benefit were positively correlated with relaxation compliance. Data support the use of relaxation for hypertension but suggest that noncompliance is common in both individual and group relaxation training. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social skills and stress management training to enhance patients' interpersonal competencies.

23 adult male psychiatric outpatients, who showed evidence of marked interpersonal impairment or social isolation and absence of florid psychotic symptoms or organic brain damage, received social-skills training alone (mean age for this group was 48.4 yrs) or in conjunction with stress-management training (mean age for this group was 46.7 yrs) in 9 sessions. Nine additional men (mean age 53.4 yrs) were assigned to a minimal treatment control group. Social-skills training included modeling, coaching, covert and overt rehearsal, corrective feedback, social reinforcement, and homework assignments involving 5 response classes of social behavior. Stress-management training covered applied relaxation and cognitive restructuring procedures aligned with the same 5 response classes. Compared to the control group, Ss in both treatment conditions showed significant improvements on behavioral measures of social skill. Improvements continued during a 4-wk follow-up period and generalized to new situations not addressed in training. Neither treatment condition had an impact on self-reports of social anxiety or self-esteem. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcoholism, alpha production, and biofeedback.

Obtained EEGs of 20 alcoholics and 20 nonalcoholics (mean ages, 44 and 45 yrs, respectively) during a 20-min baseline period. Alcoholics produced less alpha (8-13 CPS) than nonalcoholics, a finding that supports previous speculations that alcoholics have a higher level of arousal. Biofeedback training designed to increase alpha production and thereby reduce arousal was given during 3 subsequent daily sessions of 20 min each. In one condition Ss were given accurate biofeedback, whereas in the other they were given random (noncontingent) feedback. Accurate biofeedback did not result in greater increases in alpha than did random biofeedback. This finding is discussed in terms of the problem of generalizing from the younger, more sophisticated, and better motivated populations on which the biofeedback techniques were developed to the clinical populations to which the biofeedback techniques are applied to treatment. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relaxation-induced anxiety: Paradoxical anxiety enhancement due to relaxation training.

14 adults (mean age 34.4 yrs) suffering from general tension were given 1 session of training in each of 2 relaxation methods—progressive relaxation and mantra meditation; order of presentation was counterbalanced. Ss were administered a battery of tests that included the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Cognitive-Somatic Anxiety Questionnaire, and the Anxiety Differential. Four of the Ss plus 1 other who terminated prematurely displayed clinical evidence of an anxiety reaction during a preliminary practice period, while 30.8% of the total group under progressive relaxation and 53.8% under focused relaxation reported increased tension due to the relaxation session. Progressive relaxation produced greater reductions in subjective and physiological outcome measures and less evidence of relaxation-induced anxiety. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of fluid ability training in old-old age.

This study examined the effects of multiple phases of cognitive training on older adults' intellectual performance over a 7-year period as Ss advanced from young-old to old-old age. The study involved a pretest–posttest/no-treatment control-group design. At each of 3 training phases, conducted in 1979, 1981, and 1986, Ss received 5 training sessions on the fluid ability of figural relations. Participants (N?=?38) had a mean age of 69 yrs (range?=?63–80) at the onset of the study. Results showed that (1) significant training effects occurred at each of the 3 study phases, when Ss had mean ages of 69, 71, and 77 yrs; (2) the largest training gains were made in the 1st training phase; and (3) as a function of multiple phases of training, Ss in their 70s and early 80s performed significantly above their baseline level of figural relations performance 7 yrs previously. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and metamemory: A study of the feeling-of-knowing phenomenon in amnesic patients.

Tested accuracy of the feeling of knowing in 2 experiments, using 8 patients with Korsakoff's syndrome (mean age 54 yrs), 8 electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) patients (mean age 46.5 yrs), 4 Ss (mean age 47 yrs) with other causes of amnesia, 2 alcoholic control groups (7 Ss with a mean age of 47.6 yrs and 19 Ss with a mean age of 48.5 yrs), and 18 healthy controls (mean age 49 yrs). In Exp I, feeling-of-knowing accuracy for the answers to general information questions that could not be recalled was tested. Ss were asked to rank nonrecalled questions in terms of how likely they thought they would be to recognize the answers and were then given a recognition test for these items. Only Korsakoff's syndrome Ss were impaired in making feeling-of-knowing predictions. The other amnesic Ss were as accurate as control Ss in their feeling-of-knowing predictions. In Exp II, these findings were replicated in a sentence memory paradigm that tested newly learned information. Results show that impaired metamemory is not an obligatory feature of amnesia, because amnesia can occur without detectable metamemory deficits. The impaired metamemory exhibited by patients with Korsakoff's syndrome reflects a cognitive impairment that is not typically observed in other forms of amnesia. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EMG biofeedback training of Type A and Type B behavior pattern subjects.

Assessed the relative efficacy of EMG biofeedback training to reduce tension levels in Ss characterized either by the presence of the coronary-prone behavior pattern (Type A) or by its absence (Type B). 55 college students, classified as Type A or B on the basis of Jenkins Activity Survey (Form T) scores, were randomly assigned to either a biofeedback or a control group. Ss met for 6 training sessions, then returned for a 7th session to perform without biofeedback a series of easy (4-digit recall) and difficult (7-digit recall) tasks. Biofeedback Ss attained a greater degree of relaxation during training than did control Ss, regardless of A/B status. Also, biofeedback Ss maintained greater relaxation during task performance than did control Ss. Across groups, Type A's performed significantly better than Type B's on difficult tasks, and although Type A biofeedback Ss had EMG levels as high as Type B controls for the actual duration of performance tasks, they maintained significantly lower EMG levels than either group prior to, between, and after performance tasks. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group psychotherapy with mastectomy patients.

Compared 20 women who participated in 10 weekly sessions of group psychotherapy with 20 women placed on a waiting list after they had mastectomies. Ss were matched on age (33–65 yrs old), marital status, time since surgery, prognosis, and SES. A structured, scaled interview was used to assess maladjustment, and 2 inventories were used to assess therapy outcome; all Ss were administered all measures before the treatment program began, when it finished 10 wks later, and 4 wks after the end of treatment. Results show that over the course of the therapy period, both groups showed changes in a positive direction; however, Ss in the treatment group showed significantly greater improvement. In the 4-wk follow-up period Ss in the treatment group continued to show significant positive change. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor affecting adherence to rehabilitation interventions for individuals with fibromyalgia.

Examined treatment adherence of 87 Ss (mean age 43.96 yrs) with fibromyalgia syndrome enrolled in a rehabilitation clinical trial study and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups: (1) biofeedback, (2) exercise, (3) combination (biofeedback and exercise) or to an attention control condition. Ss completed a 6-wk training program, questionnaires, and a physical exam. Between-group differences on an adherence measure were examined, and multiple regression analyses were used to determine the best model for predicting adherence. Results show that adherence among people with fibromyalgia is multidetermined. Those in the biofeedback intervention were more adherent, suggesting that treatment factors impact adherence. Furthermore, the best model for predicting adherence suggests that subject characteristics like age and education also influence adherence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term persistence of relaxation-induced blood pressure lowering during the working day.

30 hypertensive Ss (mean age 49.9 yrs) who had been randomly allocated to either relaxation training or to blood pressure monitoring were followed up 15 mo after treatment. Ss receiving relaxation training showed significantly greater lowering of diastolic blood pressure than the control group both in the clinic and during the working day, demonstrating long-term persistence of the effect of relaxation training. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of home practice in the thermal biofeedback treatment of migraine headache.

Examined the role of home practice of hand warming in the thermal biofeedback treatment of migraine headache. 17 female migraine sufferers were randomly assigned to 1 of the following conditions: thermal biofeedback with regular home practice (HP) or thermal biofeedback without home practice (NHP). Biofeedback treatment consisted of 12 training sessions over a 6-wk period, and all Ss completed 5 wks of headache monitoring before and after treatment. Results indicated that Ss in the HP condition experienced decreases in headache activity and medication intake that were both statistically and clinically significant compared with the NHP condition. None of the outcome measures revealed significant improvement in the NHP condition. Thus, regular HP appears to enhance the efficacy of biofeedback in the treatment of migraine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

L'effet du niveau d'experiencing du client et de l'aidant sur l'abandon d'un processus thérapeutique.

Studied the effect of client and therapist level of experiencing, beginning with the initial stage of psychological counseling, on early termination of therapy. Human subjects: 32 male and female Canadian adults (mean age 30–32 yrs) (personality disorders, neuroses, or interpersonal problems) (clients of therapists). 19 normal male and female Canadian adults (mean age 31 yrs) (graduate students) (therapists). Clients were subdivided into 2 groups: those who had terminated therapy (early or late), and those who had not terminated therapy. Ss were interviewed. Levels of experiencing were compared for the 2 groups of clients and for therapists who had counseled these clients. Tests used: The Global Assessment Scale, Psychiatric Symptom Index (F. Ilfeld, 1976), and Experiencing Scale (P. Mathieu-Coughlan and M. Klein, 1984). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representational boundaries in role portrayals among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic patients.

Studied the boundary properties of self and other representations in 31 normal Ss (mean age 18.8 yrs) and in 18 paranoid (mean age 21.2 yrs), 14 intermediate (mean age 21.9 yrs), and 16 nonparanoid (mean age 22.1 yrs) inpatient schizophrenics, using a dramatic role-playing technique. Role test and Rorschach responses were scored for presence of fluid and rigid boundaries between representations of human characters. Paranoid schizophrenics evidenced higher levels of rigid boundaries, nonparanoid schizophrenics had higher levels of fluid boundaries, and normal Ss showed fewer fluid or rigid boundaries. Rorschach and role test measures of boundary disruption were significantly correlated with each other and with other measures of psychopathology. Findings suggest that the relative balance between fluid and rigid representational boundaries is an effective discriminator of paranoid and nonparanoid subtypes and that the presence of either type of boundary imagery discriminates schizophrenics from normal Ss. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client improvement on higher and lower intensity problems as a function of group cohesiveness.

16 graduate students (mean age 28.5 yrs) met in 2 separate therapy groups for 10 wks. S-selected outside raters evaluated Ss' improvement or deterioration in problem resolution. Ratings were performed on both disclosed problems and on nondisclosed control problems that Ss had indicated as of higher or lower intensity. It was determined that the order of problem improvement was: (1) disclosed higher-intensity problems, (2) disclosed lower-intensity problems, (3) nondisclosed lower-intensity problems, and (4) nondisclosed higher-intensity problems; all differences were significant. More problems were disclosed in higher-cohesive sessions, and external raters' S improvement on problems disclosed in higher-cohesive sessions was significantly greater than those disclosed in lower-cohesive sessions. Results are discussed in relation to group therapy. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of psychotherapeutic practice upon psychotherapists.

60 psychotherapists (mean age 38 yrs) participated in 2 1-hr interview sessions that focused on their experiences of work and their perceptions regarding the interface between their personal and professional lives. In addition, Ss were asked to complete a rating scale measuring their perceptions of personality changes they have undergone since beginning therapeutic practice. Results indicate that, as a consequence of their practice, Ss became increasingly psychological-minded, self-aware, and self-assured. These changes were all in a positive direction and consonant with changes therapists often seek to promote in patients. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of excessive and rapid smoking in the modification of chronic smoking behavior.

In a study of aversive control of smoking behavior, 27 females and 18 males (mean age, 30.9 yrs; mean yrs as a smoker, 13.1; mean baseline cigarettes/day, 31.6) were randomly assigned to rapid smoking, excessive smoking, or control conditions. Ss attended 6 treatment sessions over a 1-wk period. Prescribed smoking was carried on in both the laboratory and outside environment. A breath test measuring concentration of carbon monoxide in the bloodstream was used as a check on the reliability of self-reports. Overall, there was a statistically reliable treatment effect, according to measures of percentage reductions in smoking and Ss maintaining total abstinence. However, treatment effect had disappeared at 12-mo follow-up. Experimental and control groups showed considerable relapse independent of condition, with only 20% of Ss remaining abstinent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emetic and electric shock alcohol aversion therapy: Assessment of conditioning.

20 male alcoholic volunteers (mean age 42 yrs) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: emetic aversion conditioning, shock aversion conditioning, or a no-treatment control group. All Ss participated in psychophysiological assessment sessions and taste-test sessions before and after conditioning. Dependent measures all indicated that only emetic Ss acquired aversions to alcohol. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)