Previous research demonstrated the efficacy of both physical exercise and anxiety management training in reducing psychologic and physiologic measures that predispose individuals to coronary heart disease. Our study compared these two treatment approaches in the reduction of anxiety, heart rate, blood pressure, and the type A behavior pattern. Eighteen subjects who experienced mild daily stress were randomly assigned to either (1) a seven-week aerobic physical exercise (PE) program as commonly used in cardiac rehabilitation, (2) a seven-week anxiety management training (AMT) program, or (3) a no-treatment control group. Subjects in both the PE and AMT programs, but not in the control group, had significant reductions is self-report measures of state of anxiety and systolic blood pressure. Subjects in the AMT group significantly decreased their score on a self-report measure of trait anxiety. Only PE subjects showed significant decreases on the Jenkins Activity Survey scale for type A coronary-prone behavior. The PE subjects also showed significant decreases in heart rate with exercise and significant increases in serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, both of which are correlates of cardiac fitness. The results support the inclusion of both aerobic PE and AMT in stress prevention programs and suggest that aerobic conditioning may be an effective intervention for the type A behavior pattern.
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