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The purpose of this study was to assess to what degree learned control of digital temperature and vasospastic attacks can be retained by Raynaud's patients over a full year period. Subjects were 19 patients suffering from diagnosed idiopathic Raynaud's disease who had undergone behavioral training. These patients had been trained to increase digital temperature using either autogenic training, biofeedback, or a combination of autogenic training and temperature biofeedback. Results indicated that the mean number of vasospastic attacks per day occurring 1 year after training was approximately equal to the number occurring at the end of the initial training (1.2-1.3 per day). Patient satisfaction with the treatment program was above average (3.5 on a 5-point scale). The patients' ability to maintain digital temperature during the cold stress challenge was imparied, however. At 1-year follow-up, digital temperature readings taken in the laboratory were identical to baseline levels.

In order to assess the efficacy of a behavioral intervention in the treatment of idiopathic Raynaud's disease, 30 female patients were trained to control their digital skin temperature using autogenic training or a combination of autogenic training and skin temperature feedback either in the laboratory or at home. All trained subjects demonstrated a significant ability to maintain digital skin temperature in the presence of a cold stress challenge and reported significant reductions in both frequency and intensity of vasospastic attacks. The addition of skin temperature feedback to autogenic training did not provide additional clinical benefit.

This study examined the efficacy of a simple autogenic and biofeedback treatment package in the management of Raynaud's Phenomenon secondary to diagnosed collagen vascular disease. The patient, diagnosed as suffering from mixed connective tissue disease, had an average of 6.3 vasospastic attacks per day during a 2 week baseline period. The frequency of daily attacks dropped to 4.2 after 10 weeks and 2.5 attacks after 1 yr of training. In addition, the patient displayed a gradual improvement in the ability to maintain digital skin temperature in the presence of ambient cold stress.

Twenty-one female patients suffering from diagnosed idiopathic Raynaud's Disease were trained to raise digital skin temperature using either autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation, or a combination of autogenic training and skin temperature feedback. Patients were instructed in the treatment procedures in three one-hour group sessions spaced one week apart. All patients were instructed to practice what they had learned twice a day at home. Patients kept records of the frequency of vasospastic attacks occurring over a four-week baseline period, and during the first four weeks and the ninth week of training. In addition, patients underwent four laboratory cold stress tests during which they were instructed to maintain digital temperature as the ambient temperature was slowly dropped from 26 degrees to 17 degrees C. Cold stress tests were given during week 1 of baseline and during weeks 1, 3, and 5 of training. No significant differences between the three behavioral treatment procedures were obtained. In addition, the ability of patients to maintain digital temperature during the cold stress challenge showed significant improvement from the first to the last tests. Symptomatic improvement was maintained by all patients nine weeks after the start of training. The implications of these findings for the behavioral treatment of Raynaud's Disease are discussed.