Men with chronic occupational stress benefit from behavioural/psycho-educational group training: a randomized, prospective, controlled trial.
BACKGROUND
Overworking is one of the most frequent stressors. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of behavioural/psycho-educational group training in men who are chronically stressed from overworking.


METHODS
Of 72 male subjects, 36 were randomly assigned to training for 8 weeks and another 36 formed the control group, which received a placebo intervention. Primary outcome measures were systolic blood pressure, salivary cortisol concentration upon awakening, and self-reported changes on the scales of the Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress (TICS), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) and the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36).


RESULTS
A significant reduction in mean values was observed in daily systolic blood pressure and salivary cortisol concentration on all the TICS and most of the STAXI and SF-36 scales.


CONCLUSIONS
Behavioural/psycho-educational group training appears to be effective in the treatment of men suffering from chronic stress due to overworking.
Nickel
C
C
Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine, Inntalklinik, Simbach/Inn, Germany.
Tanca
S
S
Kolowos
S
S
Pedrosa-Gil
F
F
Bachler
E
E
Loew
T H
TH
Gross
M
M
Rother
W K
WK
Nickel
M K
MK
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012463:Saliva; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*
D006854:Hydrocortisone