Abstract
Currently a considerable number of therapists are using both AT and PR randomly without any rationale as an antianxiety response in their conducting Systematic Desensitization, and it is difficult to find any preference for either AT and PR from their experiences. This situation has urged the author to undertake a controlled study for comparing AT and PR in terms of the potency and usefulness as antianxiety responses and the easiness of trainings. 120 neurotic patients with anxiety symptoms were randomly put on either AT or PR training, which were conducted in similar fashions concerning the time and frequency of sessions and the trainer. After one month of trainings, the trainees who claimed to be successful in the trainings were evaluated in terms of their decreased arousal levels, through self-assessment ratings and the examinations of EMG changes on frontal muscles and forearm extensors. As a result, AT proved significantly superior to PR in terms of antianxiety responses and the easiness of the exercises. Some possible reasons for the results were speculated from the viewpoints of the differences of the nature and intervention mode of the training.
