Anxiety management in alcoholics: A study of generalized effects of relaxation techniques

Abstract

In order to investigate the effects of progressive relaxation training (Bernstein & Borkover, 1973) and meditation training (Beary & Benson, 1974) on generalized arousal in alcoholics, 30 subjects were selected from an inpatient alcohol treatment unit of a Veterans Administration hospital. The subjects were appropriately screened and randomly assigned to one of the following groups: (a) progressive relaxation training (PRT); (b) meditation training (MT); or (c) quiet rest control group (QR). The groups met 3 times per week for a total of 3 weeks. The measures of arousal employed in this study were state anxiety (Speilberger, Gorsuch & Lushene, 1970), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and spontaneous GSR. These measures of generalized arousal were collected once each week at a specified time for all subjects.The results revealed generalized effects for blood pressure, but not for the other dependent measures. In addition, the PRT and MT groups did not exhibit increased blood pressure as observed in control subjects. The potential contribution of these techniques to the treatment of alcoholism is discussed.