Applied relaxation training in the treatment of genital herpes

Abstract

Four individuals with frequent recurrences of genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) were trained in Applied Relaxation (AR). Participants included in the research had been diagnosed with herpes at least 1 year prior to the study, experienced six or more outbreaks annually, and were not taking antiviral medications. The experiment employed a multiple baseline across subjects design. Participants maintained daily diaries of the frequency, duration and severity of herpes activity from baseline until a minimum of 3 months posttreatment. Treatment consisted of 10 individual AR sessions. Pretraining and posttraining frontalis electromyographic activity measures of subjects' ability to relax during rest and to apply the relaxation skill during stressful role plays were obtained. All subjects reported pretreatment to posttreatment reductions in herpes frequency. These changes were statistically significant across all subjects as a group and individually for three of the four subjects. These results suggest that AR is an effective technique for reducing recurrent HSV infection.