Bridge et. al

• The aim is to see the effectiveness of relaxation and imagery techniques on the stress that cancer patients face.
• They hypothesised:

  • They predicted that those who underwent the relaxation and imagery treatment would have a better mood than those who only did the relaxation treatment.
  • They predicted that those who had the relaxation treatment would have a better mood than those who didn’t (control group).
• 139 women were used.
• All were below the age of 70.
• All the women were undergoing six-week radiotherapy for an early diagnosis of breast cancer.
• The women were told that they were going to be randomly allocated into three experimental conditions.
• The three experimental conditions were: the relaxation group, the relaxation and imagery group, and the control group.
• The control group had no relaxation therapy.
• Those in the relaxation and imagery group were taught, in addition to the relaxation techniques, to imagine a calm scenery to enhance relaxation.
• Those in the relaxation group were taught how to divert their focus and attention to specific muscle groups in their bodies and deep breathing techniques.
• In addition to the techniques, those in the treatment groups were given tapes that were supposed to be listened to for 15 minutes every day. These tapes repeated the instructions they were given. Furthermore, all the participants were supposed to meet with the researcher once every week during the six-week program.
• Those in the treatment groups practiced their exercises with the researcher, and those in the control group talked about themselves and their interests.
• There were two self-report questionnaires used to measure the levels of anxiety and depression within the patients.
• The two questionnaires used were:

  • The Leeds general scale.
  • The Profile Mood of Stats questionnaire.
• The Mood Profile of Stats questionnaire contained 65 items testing various areas like levels of anger, fatigue, anxiety, etc all would be added together to give a total mood disturbance score.
• The Leeds general scale had 6 items each talking about anxiety and depression; each question was rated on a four-point scale.
• The Leeds general scale is usually used for individuals who have not been formally diagnosed with depression.
• Total mood disturbance scores varied significantly between the control groups.
• Expected changes in mood occurred between the relaxation and relaxation imagery groups.
• It was found that during the six weeks, the mood of the treatment groups improved, with the greatest improvement coming from the relaxation and imagery group.
• For those in the control group, it was found that their mood worsened during the six weeks.
• Women who scored particularly high for anger levels responded worse to the relaxation and the relaxation and imagery treatments.