THE EFFECTS OF RELAXATION RESPONSE TRAINING ON MENOPAUSAL SYMPTOMS

The specific aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of elic itation of the relaxation response for the treatment of menopausal hot flashes and concurrent psychological symptoms. The volunteer sample c onsisted of 33 women, between the ages of 44 and 66 years, who were in general good health, with a minimum of 6 months without a menstrual p eriod, experiencing at least five hot flashes per 24-h, and not using hormone replacement therapy. The setting was an outpatient clinic in a tertiary care teaching hospital. The interventions used were relaxati on response training and an attention-control group and a daily sympto m diary measuring both the frequency and intensity of hot flashes, the Spielberger State - Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Profile o f Mood Scale (POMS) were the measures used. This was a randomized, con trolled, prospective study. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups (relaxation response, reading, or control) for the 10-wee k study. The first 3 weeks of baseline measurement of frequency and in tensity of hot flash symptoms, and the preintervention psychological s cores were compared with the final 3 weeks measurement of frequency an d intensity and the postintervention psychological scores for symptoma tic improvement. The relaxation response group demonstrated significan t reductions in hot flash intensity (p < 0.05), tension-anxiety (p < 0 .05) and depression (p < 0.05). The reading group demonstrated signifi cant reductions in trait-anxiety (p < 0.05) and confusion-bewilderment (p < 0.05). There were no significant changes for the control group. Daily elicitation of the relaxation response leads to significant redu ctions in hot flash intensity and the concurrent psychological symptom s of tension-anxiety and depression.