Behavioral Treatment of Raynaud’s Disease

In order to assess the efficacy of a behavioral intervention in the treatment of idiopathic Raynaud's disease, 30 female patients were trained to control their digital skin temperature using autogenic training or a combination of autogenic training and skin temperature feedback either in the laboratory or at home. All trained subjects demonstrated a significant ability to maintain digital skin temperature in the presence of a cold stress challenge and reported significant reductions in both frequency and intensity of vasospastic attacks. The addition of skin temperature feedback to autogenic training did not provide additional clinical benefit.