The study of effectiveness of relaxation and distraction techniques training in anxiety reduction in cardiac patients

Cardiovascular diseases are directly influenced by some specific psychological behaviors accompanied by stress and anxiety that in the long run increase cardiovascular diseases risk and bring about some complications. This study was carried out to examine the effects of relaxation and distraction training on anxiety reduction in cardiac patients,. In this experimental study, sixty 40-65 year old patients with cardiac diseases were selected by convenience random sampling procedure and were randomly assigned to different experimental groups: 15 patients received relaxation training, 15 patients received distraction training, 15 patients received both relaxation and distraction training, and 15 patients stayed in the waiting list group. All participants completed STAI-S and STAI-T before and after the training program. Data were analyzed by factorial analysis of variance with repeated measures. The results indicated that instruction of anxiety reduction techniques significantly decrease cardiac patients’ anxiety. There were no significant differences between the two genders. Also, there were no significant decreases between different educational levels and types of diagnosis in the anxiety reduction. Noticing the decrease in anxiety due to relaxation and distraction in patients hospitalized with cardiac diseases, the use of these techniques in all stages of prevention and treatment of coronary heart diseases seems necessary.