Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School offered an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program to menopausal women with severe hot flashes and found it reduced discomfort significantly.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester did a feasibility study to see if participating in a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program had any effect on the severity of hot flashes and menopause related quality of life.

A study from New South Wales finds that when Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, with or without hypnosis, is given to trauma survivors in the initial month after a traumatic event, they have fewer symptoms up to 2 years later.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, explored the long-term benefits of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for trauma survivors with acute stress disorder, by assessing patients 2 years after treatment.

Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center find that self-administered stress management training for chemo patients, via audio, video and print materials, was as effective as a live human doing the training.

Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center & University of South Florida in Tampa studied responses of 411 randomly assigned cancer patients about to begin chemotherapy, comparing the effects of (1) standard psychosocial care only, (2) a professionally administered form of stress management training (which included deep breathing, progressive relaxation + imagery and affirmations), or a patient self-administered form of the same stress management training, using video, audio and printed guidance.

Researchers from the University of Miami find that group cognitive-behavioral stress management improves the quality of life in breast cancer patients, the most powerful component being the ability to relax at will.

Researchers from the University of Miami tested a 10-week group cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention among 199 women newly treated for non-metastatic breast cancer, following them for 1 year after recruitment.

A study at the University of Milan with white collar workers being downsized shows that a simple stress reduction program could be implemented at the worksite, with possible preventive advantages for hypertension.

Researchers from the University of Milan compared 91 white-collar workers, enrolled at a time of work downsizing (hence, in a stress condition), with 79 healthy control subjects, for signs of altered nervous system or arterial pressure, and to test whether a simple, onsite stress management program, based on cognitive restructuring and relaxation training, could reduce the level of stress symptoms, revert stress-related autonomic nervous system dysregulation, and lower arterial pressure. This was compared to a sham program condition.

A five week training in the Relaxation Response at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center significantly improved performance on a simple attention task but did not effect complex attention, verbal, or visual declarative memory tests.

Researchers at the Mind/Body Medical Institute of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, looked at the efficacy of the Relaxation Response (RR) in helping to decrease anxiety and accompanying salivary cortisol levels, as well as improve memory and attention span in healthy older adults.

When researchers at Stockholm University in Sweden compared a stress management program based on cognitive behavioural therapy principles with a Kundalini yoga program, they found that both methods delivered excellent results.

Researchers at Stockholm University in Sweden compared a stress management program based on cognitive behavioural therapy principles with a Kundalini yoga program. A study sample of 26 women and 7 men from a large Swedish company were divided randomly into 2 groups for each of the different forms of intervention; a total of 4 groups. The groups were instructed by trained group leaders and 10 sessions were held with each of groups, over a period of 4 months. Psychological (self-rated stress and stress behaviour, anger, exhaustion, quality of life) and physiological (blood pressure, heart rate, urinary catecholamines, salivary cortisol) measurements obtained before and after treatment showed significant improvements on most of the variables in both groups as well as medium-to-high effect sizes. However, no significant difference was found between the 2 programs. The results indicate that both cognitive behaviour therapy and yoga are promising stress management techniques.

Citation: Granath J, Ingvarsson S, von Thiele U, Lundberg U. Stress management: a randomized study of cognitive behavioural therapy and yoga. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. 2006;35 (1): pages 3-10.