Abstract
Short stress management interventions such as relaxation therapy have demonstrated preliminary effectiveness in reducing stress-related problems. A promising tool to strengthen the effectiveness of relaxation-based interventions is the use of verbal suggestions, as previous research provided evidence that verbal suggestions can induce positive outcome expectancies, facilitate adaptive responses to stress and improve health outcomes. The present experimental proof-of-concept study aimed to investigate the effects of a brief relaxation intervention and specifically the role of verbal suggestions on stress-related outcomes assessed by self-report questionnaires and psychophysiological data. 120 participants (mean age = 22.1 years) were randomized to one of four intervention conditions: a brief relaxation intervention plus verbal suggestions condition, a brief relaxation intervention only condition, a verbal suggestions only condition, and a control condition. Afterwards, participants were subjected to a psychosocial stress challenge to assess reactivity to a stressful event. Immediately after both relaxation interventions (with and without verbal suggestions), lower self-reported state anxiety was found compared to the control condition, but no differences were observed in response to the stressor. The verbal suggestions only condition did not impact state anxiety. No significant effects were found for verbal suggestion interventions on cortisol, alpha amylase, heart rate and skin conductance. This is the first study investigating the role of verbal suggestions in the effectiveness of a brief relaxation intervention. Although this experimental proof-of-concept study provides support for the effectiveness of a brief relaxation intervention in lowering state anxiety directly after the intervention, the effects did not impact the response to a subsequent stressor and we did not observe any evidence for the add-on effectiveness of verbal suggestions. The effectiveness of brief relaxation interventions on stress responses should be investigated further in future research by incorporating interventions that are tailored to the specific stress challenge and various types of verbal suggestions.
Highlights
Accumulating findings demonstrate that intense acute stress and prolonged experienced stress can have adverse effects on health [1, 2]
As the aim of the brief relaxation intervention and the verbal suggestions is to optimize coping with everyday life stressors, it is interesting to investigate the effectiveness of these interventions on stress-related outcomes by exposing people to a well-validated real-life psychosocial stress challenge and subsequently evaluate the stress response
We examined whether participants in the brief relaxation intervention conditions would show less self-reported state anxiety immediately after the intervention, as well as directly and multiple time points after the stress challenge, compared to the control condition
Summary
Accumulating findings demonstrate that intense acute stress and prolonged experienced stress can have adverse effects on health [1, 2]. The present experimental proof-of-concept study investigates the effects of a brief relaxation intervention based on a single session on stress-related outcomes and assesses whether verbal suggestions can optimize these effects. As the aim of the brief relaxation intervention and the verbal suggestions is to optimize coping with everyday life stressors, it is interesting to investigate the effectiveness of these interventions on stress-related outcomes by exposing people to a well-validated real-life psychosocial stress challenge and subsequently evaluate the stress response. We examined whether participants in the brief relaxation intervention conditions (with or without verbal suggestions) would show less self-reported state anxiety immediately after the intervention, as well as directly and multiple time points after the stress challenge, compared to the control condition. We studied effects for secondary self-reported and psychophysiological outcomes, including self-reported well-being, self-reported positive and negative affect, salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase, as well as heart rate and skin conductance
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