MAINTENANCE AND GENERALIZABILITY OF LABORATORY-BASED HEART-RATE REACTIVITY CONTROL TRAINING

The maintenance over time (4 months) and generalizability (to a work s etting) of laboratory-based heart rate reactivity control training was investigated. Forty-three subjects received 5 weeks of biofeedback, i magery, and breathing training and 41 subjects acted as controls. Alth ough there were no significant differences between the reactivities of the control and those of the treatment subjects at any of three pretr aining tests, significant differences were noted immediately following training, 7 weeks, and 4 months later, showing maintenance effects. D ata collected during work activities on the frequency of reactivity of a magnitude similar to that in the laboratory also showed that treatm ent subjects had significantly fewer incidents of reactivity than cont rol subjects after training. Followup interviews with treatment subjec ts indicated that lifestyles were also enhanced in a variety of areas, suggesting that the training had wider benefits. Issues for further r esearch are discussed.