Relaxation therapy in cardiac rehabilitation : a randomized controlled clinical trial of breathing awareness as a relaxation method in the rehabilitation after myocardial infarction

Cardiac rehabilitation is often a necessary supplement to medica! treatment of patients with acute ischaemie heart disease. Rehabilitation is directed to the functional recovery of the patient, physically as well as socially and mentally. Exercise training is at present the most common component of cardiac rehabilitation. However, most investigators have failed to show that exercise in itself would imprave the patient's functional state satisfactorily. Therefore, there is a need to reconsider rehabilitation policy (1). Various authors are in favour of a multidisciplinary or comprehensive approach (2), which enables a differentiation of treatment programmes, tailoring rehabilitation to the needs of the individual patient. We agree with this approach. Rehabilitation is more than exercise training only (3). The question is, what other treatments are there that are feasible and effective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the incremental value of individual relaxation therapy

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