New
book on emotional management reveals the importance of coping skills
You Can
Control How You React to Stress
by Redford Williams, MD, and
Virginia Williams, PhD
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Beginning
in the early 1980s, several randomized clinical trials of behavioral
strategies targeted certain psychological and social risk factors in
people with heart disease or cancer. By chance assignment, some
subjects were taught the strategies, while others were put in a
control group and didn't learn the strategies. Randomized clinical
trials are considered the gold standard when it comes to proving
that new treatments -- whether new drugs or behavioral approaches --
are effective in treating or preventing disease. These early studies
found some amazing results.
- People with
malignant melanoma (a type of skin cancer) who received training
in coping sills to handle stress slashed their recurrence rate by
50 percent and their death rate by an astonishing 70 percent.
- Heart
attack patients who received training that reduced both hostility
and depression cut their risk of recurring heart attacks or death
in half.
- Other heart
patients who were trained to use coping skills to reduce stress
cut their risk of having subsequent heart attacks or needing
bypass surgery or angioplasty by more than 50 percent.
One of our corporate clients
found that training decreased bad stuff, such as depression and
hostility, and increased good stuff, such as social support and
self-esteem, among employees. These results were obtained in what
might be described as "open label trials" of our program (in other
words, there was no randomized control group). Now there have been
two carefully conducted randomized clinical trials of patients with
heart disease that document these benefits more rigorously.
In the first, psychologist
Karina Davidson, PhD, and her student Yori Gidron at Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, randomly assigned heart attack
patients to groups that received either the usual care or training
to reduce hostility, which was based on an earlier version of our
eight-week program. At the end of eight training sessions, those in
the hostility-reduction group showed significant decreases in both
hostility and blood pressure compared with those who received the
usual care. More important, when the researchers followed up with
the patients after two months, they found that both hostility and
blood pressure levels had decreased even further in those receiving
hostility-reduction training, while levels had drifted up slightly
in those receiving the usual care. After six months, those who had
received hostility-reduction training had been hospitalized again
for an average of only about 1/2 day, compared with 2.5 days for the
usual-care group.
A more recent randomized
clinical trial was conducted by psychologist George Bishop, PhD, at
the National University of Singapore and the National Heart Centre
there. In that study, people who had undergone coronary bypass
surgery were randomly assigned to either the usual care or to our
coping skills workshop. Because we trained Dr. Bishop and his
colleagues to deliver the workshop, the training was provided to the
patients in Singapore just as it is in the United States, with some
adaptations for Far Eastern culture. (For example, instead of
practicing assertion toward someone who has distressed you, you
would have a friend or relative act as an intermediary, thereby
ensuring that no one would lose face.)
As first presented at the Annual
Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in Chicago in
November 2002, Dr. Bishop's study both confirmed and extended the
results obtained by Dr. Davidson and Gidron. When tested 3 months
after the workshops were completed, the patients who received
training were better off on several fronts than those who received
the usual care. For example:
- They
experienced less psychosocial bad stuff: lower scores on
depression (a 60 percent decrease), anger (18 percent), and
perceived stress (18 percent).
- They
experienced less biological bad stuff: lower resting heart rate (a
9 percent decrease) and reduced reactivity of blood pressure (56
percent) and heart rate (65 percent) when angered.
- They
experienced more psychosocial good stuff: higher scores for
satisfaction with social support (a 14 percent increase) and
satisfaction with life (13 percent).
These results provide direct
evidence that training in coping skills can really change not only
people's ability to improve their emotional lives but also their
physical prognoses and prospects for future health.
Copyright ©
2006 Redford Williams, MD, and Virginia Williams, PhD. Excerpted
from the book
In Control
by Redford
Williams, MD, and Virginia Williams, PhD Published by Rodale;
February 2006; US$24.95, CDN$33.95; 1-59486-256-7.
Redford Williams, MD,
is director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center, professor of
psychology, professor of psychiatry, and professor of medicine at
the Duke University Medical Center. He has served as president of
the American Psychosomatic Society, Society of Behavioral Medicine,
and Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and he is
president-elect of the International Society of Behavioral Medicine.
Virginia Williams, PhD,
is the president of William Lifeskills, Inc., in Durham, North
Carolina, and has organized and led workshops teaching the In
Control process to thousands of individuals, corporations, and
government agencies around the world. The Williamses also coauthored
Anger Kills, a bestseller, and Lifeskills. They live outside of
Durham, North Carolina. For more informaiton, visit:
www.williamslifeskills.com/
Free
Binaural Beats MP3
Stimulate
your mind while you sleep
Best-selling isochronic tones MP3s
Get it at Isochiral.com/Free
Develop
Your Intuition
in Just 2
Days. Guaranteed!
Silva Ultramind Home Seminar
Download it Now...
Melt
Away Your Stress
Meditate
as Deep as a Zen Monk
With the Push of One Button.
Free Demo Reveals Secrets!
|
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