Racial and gender effects on the relaxation response: implications for the development of hypertension

Description of anxiety levels by individual differences and clinical factors in patients receiving mechanical ventilatory support

BACKGROUND

Though anxiety is a common experience for patients receiving mechanical ventilatory support, little is known about how it may vary among patients on the basis of individual or clinical factors. There is an absence of data objectively describing anxiety levels in ventilated patients on the basis of salient factors that could be useful in designing and tailoring interventions.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to describe anxiety levels in a sample of mechanically ventilated patients by individual differences (eg, gender or ethnicity) and clinical factors (eg, medical indication for and length of mechanical ventilation).

SAMPLE

Two hundred alert, mechanically ventilated adult patients were recruited from 9 intensive care units in the urban Midwest.

METHODS

This study was a secondary analysis of existing data that used a descriptive design. Anxiety was assessed via the 20-item Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory.

RESULTS

Whereas state anxiety varied widely, participants receiving mechanical ventilatory support reported moderate anxiety (mean = 49.2) with comparable levels by gender and ethnicity. Patients receiving ventilatory support for greater than 22 days tended to report slightly higher state anxiety (mean = 54.2) compared with those chronically ventilator dependent (mean = 45.8). Those participants with primarily respiratory diagnoses reported the highest levels (50.5) among the diagnostic groups. Findings from this study document the individual, variable nature of state anxiety. Additional research is needed to further elucidate whether these and other important clinical factors, such as illness severity or dyspnea, affect state anxiety ratings in ventilated patients to guide the researcher and clinician in appropriately testing and tailoring interventions.

Effects of progressive relaxation and classical music on measurements of attention, relaxation, and stress responses

The present experiment examined relaxation using different experimental conditions to test whether the effects of individual elements of relaxation could be measured, whether specific effects were revealed, or whether relaxation resulted from a generalized "relaxation response." Sixty-seven normal, male volunteers were exposed to a stress manipulation and then to one of two relaxation (Progressive Relaxation, Music) or control (Attention Control, Silence) conditions. Measurements of attention, relaxation, and stress responses were obtained during each phase of the experiment. All four groups exhibited similar performance on behavioral measures of attention that suggested a reduction in physiological arousal following their relaxation or control condition, as well as a decreased heart rate. Progressive Relaxation, however, resulted in the greatest effects on behavioral and self-report measures of relaxation, suggesting that cognitive cues provided by stress management techniques contribute to relaxation.