The effectiveness of progressive relaxation training in decreasing the severity of neuroleptic-induced tardive dyskinesia (TD) was examined in the current study. Three residents at a county-owned nursing home who had been receiving neuroleptic medications for a number of years to treat severe mental illness participated in this study. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used to evaluate the effect of progressive relaxation training on the participant's orofacial TD symptomatology. The severity of each participant's orofacial TD was observed to improve when the intervention was introduced. Treatment integrity and IOA data that were collected indicate that the intervention was implemented at a high level of fidelity and that data were reliable. Thus, a clear functional relationship was established between progressive relaxation training and severity of orofacial TD in this study. Although the present study was preliminary in nature, the results that were obtained provide a basis upon which to develop a behavioral treatment protocol for managing TD.

This study was designed to compare the clinical effectiveness of EMG biofeedback and progressive relaxation training in the treatment of muscle tension headache. These procedures also were compared with a treatment-element control group. Results from this study indicated that EMG biofeedback, progressive relaxation, and the control procedures all led to significant improvements across sessions on EMG and most self-report measures. There was little evidence that either treatment technique was superior to the other or to the control procedures. Although in most cases there were rather large numerical differences between groups, these differences generally were not statistically significant. Analysis of correlations between EMG and self-report data revealed a pattern of variable but generally nonsignificant relationships. However, for the biofeedback and progressive relaxation groups, there were a number of highly significant correlations. The pattern of correlations suggested that the relationship between EMG tension and subjective headache pain may be better predicted by something other than a strict linear model.

This study was designed to investigate the inhibiting effect that caffeine may have in inducing deeper states of relaxation. The degree of relaxation was assessed by physiological measures, self-ratings, and behavioral observations of relaxation behavior.