1. Immune System and Psychological Changes in Metastatic Cancer Patients Using Relaxation and Guided Imagery: A Pilot Study
- Author
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Stephen P. Hersh, Barry L. Gruber, Patricia Dubois, and Nicholas Hall
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Relaxation (psychology) ,business.industry ,Natural Killer Cell Activity ,Mixed lymphocyte response ,Cancer ,Disease ,medicine.disease ,Gastroenterology ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,Immune system ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Internal medicine ,White blood cell ,Immunology ,medicine ,business ,Guided imagery - Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the hypothesis that relaxation and imagery can measurably influence immune responsiveness. The research sample was a group of adult cancer patients with metastatic disease. The subjects systematically engaged in relaxation and guided imagery exercises over one year while monthly samples of blood were drawn for study in a laboratory blind to their identity or specific clinical conditions. Although cortisol and white blood cell counts were not significantly changed, several measures of immune system function were found to be significantly elevated compared to baseline: PHA Mitogen (p
- Published
- 1988
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