Cardiac events after myocardial infarction: possible effect of relaxation therapy

Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation aims primarily at improving quality of life, but an effect on morbidity and mortality may also be expected, especially when changes in behaviour and life-style are induced. The value of relaxation therapy and exercise training in post myocardial infarction (MI) patients was investigated. A group of 90 post MI patients were randomly assigned to either exercise training plus individual relaxation and breathing therapy (treatment A), or exercise training only (treatment B). The occurrence of cardiac events, consisting of cardiac death and of readmission to hospital for unstable angina pectoris, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or recurrent infarction, differed significantly for the two treatment groups in the 2-3 years after infarction. Seven out of 42 patients in treatment group A (17%) experienced a cardiac event, in contrast to 17 out of 46 (37%) patients in treatment group B, (P = 0.05, two-tailed). The results suggest that a combination of a behavioural treatment such as relaxation therapy with exercise training is more favourable for the long-term outcome after myocardial infarction than is exercise training alone.