Anger management in post traumatic stress disorder: a comparison of two methods of relaxation [thesis] / Fionnula MacLiam

This pilot study was conducted to see whether either of two relaxation methods had any advantage in either effectiveness or acceptability to clients undergoing anger management as part of treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to single incident trauma. Nine clients completed the four week programme. Measures used were widely used questionnaires, the IES-R (Weiss & Marmer, 1997), DASS (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) and the NAS (Novaco, 2003); self-recordings; and physiological - blood pressure and heart rate. The two relaxation methods used were Jacobsonian Progressive Muscular Relaxation and Imaginal Relaxation in which the imagery was provided by the clients themselves. The findings showed no clear results, but suggestions are given for improvements in the design which would enhance a larger study of this topic.