Relaxation effects of the Stress Cleaner (SC-SX) -First Report-

Abstract

This study investigated the psychological and physiological relaxation effects of the STRESS-CLEANER (SC-SX: Technos Japan Co., Ltd.). The participants were 44 healthy adults (20 men and 24 women, mean age: 34.14±11.58) who watched two music videos using the SC-SX. The Profile of Mood States-Brief Japanese Version (POMS: Yokoyama, 2005) was used to measure psychological variables and measurements were made at 3 time periods: baseline (T1), after watching video A (T2), after watching video B (T3). POMS consists of six subscales: Tension-Anxiety (T-A), Depression (D), Anger-Hostility (A-H), Vigor (V), Fatigue (F), and Confusion (C). Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) was calculated by subtracting V from the total for the other subscale scores. The biological signals (Electromyography: EMG) was used to measure physiological variables of the participants. Signals were analyzed by Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT). The power level of the Muscle potential was recorded between 2Hz and 40Hz during the three time periods. After the recording, the biological signals were integrated and the mean value was displayed on a PC screen as the Numerical of biological signals (NB). To investigate changes of POMS and NB, one-way ANOVAs with a repeated-measures design were conducted. Results indicated the significant main effect of the time period (T-A, A-H, F, C, TMD: p<.001, V: p<.01, D: p<.05, NB: p<.10). Post hoc analysis of group differences using Bonferroni's test indicated the following: (1) between T1-2, TMD of POMS and all subscales decreased significantly (ps<.05), 2) between T1-3, TMD of POMS and all subscales other than Depression decreased significantly (ps<.01), 3) between T2-3, only Tension-Anxiety and NB decreased significantly (Tension-Anxiety: p<.01, NB: p<.10). These findings suggested the C-SX had the effects of promoting the relaxation response.