Effect of Jacobson Progressive Muscle Relaxation (JPMR) on psychopathological problems in chronic non-malignant pain patients

Pages: 630-633
Kanika Suri and Manju Pandey (Department of Psychology, Hemwati Nandan Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand)

Chronic pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain as something that perseveres beyond normal tissue healing time, which is anticipated to be three months for the pain to be chronic in nature. The chronic non-cancer pain is under study. Objectives: The cardinal objective of the contemporary study is to explore the effect of relaxation training (JPMR) on the psychopathological problems namely Anxiety and Depression. Materials and Methods: A pre-post study was performed on the patients with Chronic non-malignant pain. These were namely: Fibromyalgia, Chronic headache, and Somatic symptom disorder. The study consisted of a sample of 30 adult patients selected by a proper inclusion and exclusion criteria. So first the pre-test was done, after the intervention phase of four weeks, a reassessment was done on these patients. The tool used was Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale by Zigmond and Snaith. Results: The results showed the effect of relaxation training upon the patients to reduce psychopathological functions, showcasing the efficacy of these techniques. Amongst the averages, the lowest was found to be in Chronic headache patients. The lower scores show a decline in anxiety and depression. Hence, there was a depletion in the psychopathological problems, when patients were given relaxation training. Conclusions: the research has strong implications towards focusing on the impact of relaxation training over the anxiety and depression under chronic pain patients. It shows how the pain management program with the psychological intervention with relaxation training can help in depleting the anxiety and depression suffered by chronic non-cancer pain patients.