Anxiety management with schizophrenic outpatients

Current theoretical speculation and research evidence suggest that elevated anxiety levels and poor anxiety coping skills may be important aspects of the schizophrenic process. Despite the success of various behaviorally oriented stress management techniques with nonpsychotic individuals, research on the effects of these programs as applied to schizophrenics has been scarce. The present study examined the effects of two such techniques, Anxiety Management Training (AMT) and Applied Relaxation Training (R), on schizophrenic outpatients. After 6 weeks of training, both the AMT and R Ss (N = 27) reported significantly lower levels of generalized anxiety on a standard measure, as contrasted to non-treated Wait-List (WL) group Ss (N = 12). In addition, significant positive changes were reported by the Ss' regular outpatient therapists on a number of related, non-targeted behaviors. The results of this study support the idea that short-term anxiety management interventions may be useful in the treatment of schizophrenic patients.