Cognitive-behavioral and systematic desensitization procedures in reducingstress and anger in caregivers for the disabled

Twenty-six highly stressed family and community caregivers for people with a disability completed scales designed to assess perceived stress, stare an ger; and trait angel: They were randomly divided into three groups. Subject s in one group underwent stress-reduction training in a self-instructional procedure, subjects in the second group underwent stress-reduction training in systematic desensitization, and subjects in the third group were placed in a wait-list condition, Results showed that state anger and trait anger were correlated with perceived stress at pretreatment, and stare anger was correlated with perceived stress at posttreatment and follow-up. Subjects i n both the self-instructional and systematic desensitization groups showed a reduction in perceived stress. Subjects in the self-instructional trainin g group also showed a decrease in trait anger The wait-list group showed no significant change in perceived stress and anger.