Introduction: Anxiety experience in adolescents is more intense than other periods of life. The relaxation of muscles leads to the relaxation of the mind, because it prevents the production of negative thoughts. Therefore, this study was done with the purpose of determining the effects of Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) on pre-university students’ anxiety. Methods: In this randomized controlled clinical trial, 304 pre-university students of public schools in Malayer city that had the inclusion criteria were allocated to 2 groups of PMR and control with simple random sampling. Progressive Muscle Relaxation was taught to the intervention group and the students were asked to do the relaxation once a day for one month. Anxiety score of the entire sample was measured at the beginning, during, and the end of the intervention, using the “ Beck Depression Inventory” . Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20, and repeated measures test. Results: The mean of the control group› s anxiety score was 14. 96 ± 8. 22, reaching 16. 56 ± 8. 08 after 2 weeks and 19. 45 ± 8. 27 at the end of the fourth weeks. The mean of the intervention group› s anxiety scores was 15. 71 ± 8. 58. It decreased to 13. 33 ± 9. 06 at the end of the second week and 10. 64 ± 9. 30 at the end of the fourth week. The repeated measures test showed a significant difference between the 2 groups in mean anxiety scores (P = 0. 008), and was significantly different at the three time points (P < 0. 001). Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that the PMR caused a decrease in anxiety in pre-university students.

Background and Aims: Low back pain is usually associated with psychological, social, and biological-physical problems. As pain becomes more chronic, the role of psychological and social factors becomes more prominent than biological factors. Following the failure of medical treatments for pain, specialists turned to non-sensory aspects of pain, including psychological factors. Therefore, the use of psychological therapies became part of new therapeutic lines. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of AUTOGENIC education and emotion regulation TRAINING on pain intensity in women with chronic low back pain. Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most common chronic health problems, which is the second leading cause of physical disability in the world that is responsible for a significant portion of health care costs and leads to detrimental effects on personal health, quality of life, job satisfaction and wasted work days. One of the most common and costly disorders, especially among women, is chronic low back pain, which is defined as an unpleasant sensory and psychological experience associated with possible or actual tissue damage. While medical interventions play an important role in reducing pain, their unpleasant side effects have limited the widespread use of drug therapies. On the other hand, some chronic pain problems are difficult to diagnose and their drug treatment has limited effectiveness. Daily life with pain can cause excessive fatigue and thus impair the quality of life of the sufferer, so psychological interventions to reduce the problems caused by chronic pain, expanded. These interventions have many effects in the field of chronic diseases and can help to relieve the pain of patients with chronic pain in addition to medication, as well as alleviate their psychological symptoms that have also been the cause of pain. The two interventions ART and AT regulate the emotions of individuals, reduce cramps and muscle tensions in patients, create a feeling of physical and mental relaxation, and reduce the symptoms of the disease modifying the mind-body relationship. AT is a psychophysiological model of psychotherapy in which the individual uses passive focus and certain combinations of mental and physical stimuli, relying on the establishment of a mind-body relationship to treat the patientchr('39')s low back pain. ART has also emerged from the integration of techniques from different approaches in a comprehensive TRAINING program consisting of 7 skills, which shows the effectiveness of clinical research and relies on the mind-body relationship to affect pain. Therefore, the present study compares the effectiveness of AUTOGENIC TRAINING and affect regulation TRAINING on pain intensity in women with chronic low back pain. Methods: The present research was semi-experimental study which used a pre-test, post-test and control group design (two experiment and one control groups). The statistical population of this study, included all women with chronic low back pain referring to the Moradi pain clinic in Tehran, in the year 2018. The sample of present study included 33 women with chronic low back pain who were selected by available sampling method and were assigned to two experiment and one control groups (11 persons per groups) by random assignment method. The inclusion criteria of the research included: female gender, being in the age range of 20-50 years, having higher education than a diploma, diagnosis of chronic low back pain by a pain specialist, achieving a score higher than 34. 52 in McGill Pain Questionnaire and continuing medication according the physician. The exclusion criteria of the research included: pregnancy or menopause, being in the age range of under 20 or upper 50 years, lack of diploma education, having any organ defect, co-occurrence with other chronic physical diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc. and absence of more than 1 session of group sessions. The data gathering tool was McGill Pain Questionnaire. Both experimental groups attended the sessions once a week for 12 sessions of 90 minutes, the control group did not receive any intervention from therapist. The data was analyzed by univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), in SPSSv24. Results: The mean and standard deviation of age for AT group were 40. 27± 11. 49, for ART group were 43. 55± 8. 05, and for control group were 41. 45± 7. 64. Also the mean and standard deviation of sufferance duration for AT group were 1. 91± 1. 30, for ART group were 1. 36± 0. 80, and for control group were 1. 45± 0. 82. In the field of education in AT group, %18. 2 had diploma, %72. 7 had bachelor degree, %9. 1 upper bachelor degree, in ART group, %27. 3 diploma, %18. 2 bachelor degree, %54. 5 upper bachelor degree and in control group, %45. 5 diploma, %0 bachelor degree and %54. 5 were upper than bachelor degree. Totally, 33 subjects with a mean age of 41 years and 9 months and 4 days and a standard deviation of 9 years and 4 months and 2 days participated in this study. The age range of the subjects has been extended from 25-50 years and the mean of the chronic low back pain sufferance duration was 1. 58 year with a standard deviation of 0. 708 year; the range of sufferance duration has been extended less than 1-2 years. The mean scores of pain perception and its subscales in the post-test have decreased compared to the pre-test in AT group of 22. 09 scores and in ART group of 16. 09 scores but in control group these amounts have increased slightly. Also, using MANOVA, the volume effect of the difference between the mean scores of pain perception subscales in the three groups of AT, ART and control in the two measurements in pre-test results of Pillais test showed significant changes in the collective effect of pain perception scores subscales in pre-test and post-test concerning to the AT, ART and control groups (p<0. 05) and the effect size of this differences was %44. 9. The results of ANOVA test showed significant changes in all 4 subscales of pain perception in both pre-test and post-test according to the groups of AT, ART and control (p<0. 05). The effect size of these differences for sensory perception of pain was equal to 71. 6%, for emotional perception of pain was equal to 67. 1%, for measuring the pain was 67. 8% and for various pains was 65. 6%. The data show AUTOGENIC TRAINING and affect regulation TRAINING were affective on decreasing patientschr('39') pain. Conclusion: Considering the effectiveness of the TRAININGs, it can be said that ART intervention through techniques of emotion, muscular and respiratory relaxation, awareness without judgment, acceptance and tolerance of affects and AT intervention through AUTOGENIC relaxation using heat, weight and respiration exercises, advanced relaxation and AUTOGENIC meditation, have controlled negative emotions and closed the gate of pain by teaching cognitive strategies and led to a pain reduction in patients with chronic low back pain. Therefore, according to findings of present research, it is recommended that all specialists in health fields, apply these therapeutic models to relieve chronic pains, muscular tensions and mind-body relaxation.

Objective: chronic low back pain is a complicated situation in which psychological factors are involved and it predisposed a person to chronic disability and failure respond to common treatments. The aim of this study was comparison of effectiveness of AUTOGENIC TRAINING and Affect Regulation TRAINING on cognitive emotion regulation of women with chronic low back pain. Method: The research method was quasi experimental with pretest, posttest with control groups. 60 females with chronic low back pain who run to pain clinic, those are desired to participate to this research, 33 were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly divided into three groups of 11 each. The instruments of research were including the complete package of ART and AT and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Findings: The result showed reduction of cognitive emotion regulation scale, and its subscales (self and other blame, rumination, catastrophizing, acceptance). Conclusion: Both intervention seem to be effective by making physiological and biochemical changes in body through the same mechanisms that leads negative emotions regulation in patients with chronic low back pain.

Background and Objectives: Progressive muscle relaxation is a non-invasive, cost-effective and complication less method which can be performed independently by the individual. Considering the importance of psychological problems during pregnancy, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of progressive muscle relaxation counseling on anxiety among primigravida women referred to health care centers in Hamadan, Iran.Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized clinical trial with two groups (experimental and control) with pre-test and post-test. A total of 120 women were referred to health centers in Hamadan who were experiencing their first pregnancy and were consecutively enrolled in the study, after obtaining informed consents. They were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups (60 women in each group) by allocation concealment. The control group only received routine prenatal care, but the experimental group after two counseling sessions and learning muscle relaxation techniques performed progressive muscle relaxation exercises from 21-22 weeks for 10 weeks, and completed the daily performance sheet of relaxation. The study data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire, Spielberger state-trait anxiety inventory, and the daily performance sheet for the intervention group. Data were analyzed in SPSS 20 using independent samples t-test, Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and paired t-test.Results: Data analysis reflected the homogeneity of the state and trait anxiety levels in both groups before the intervention. The results showed that state and trait anxiety in the control group after the intervention was significantly increased (P<0.001), but the experimental group showed a significant decrease in state and trait anxiety after the intervention (P<0.001).Conclusions: Teaching progressive muscle relaxation techniques to pregnant women can have a significant impact on reducing pregnancy anxiety.