A controlled comparison on the effect of muscle and cognitive relaxation procedures on blood pressure: implications for the behavioural treatment of borderline hypertensives

Outcome studies concerned with the efficacy of muscle versus cognitive relaxation procedures in reducing blood pressure remain inconclusive because of inappropriate controls and confounded relaxation instructions. In order to better compare the potency of these two procedures 30 borderline hypertensive patients were assigned to muscle tense release, muscle stretch release and cognitive relaxation procedures, placebo attention and test only control conditions to form groups orthogonally matched for pre-treatment systolic blood pressure, sex and age. Most importantly, the relaxation procedures were designed to be distinctive for each condition so that cognitive and muscle procedures were not confounded. Both cognitive and muscle relaxation procedures were superior in reducing blood pressure when compared to controls; the muscle tense release procedure proved most effective. These results dispell the common assumption that an amalgam of these two components is most effective and support previous findings that muscularly oriented relaxation methods seem more effective in treating somatic problems. The practical and theoretical significance of emphasizing a muscle relaxation approach in clinical practice and in further outcome studies are discussed.