Abstract
Autogenic training (AT) is a well-known treatment for psychosomatic disorders. AT as a group therapy (group AT) has been introduced to cases with anxiety and tension for nearly 20 years in our facility. The purpose of this paper is to examine the features and results of group AT in our facility during the past 15 years, and to consider how to utilize AT in psychosomatic internal medicine from now on. The results were as follows: First, We described the structure of group AT and the effectiveness in our course. When compared our recent study with the past ones, the effectiveness of AT had been the same for 15 years, having no relation to the number of patients. Second, We considered the cases of dropout in the past. We also mentioned points about "motivation", which we think is the most important for AT. Conclusion: To master AT could be as effective as antianxiety or sleep inducing drugs. Therefore we recommend AT as one of the ways to stop taking psychotropic medicine, and wish AT to become more prevalent.
