By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 15, 2012

Patients with multiple sclerosis who receive stress management training experience less new disease activity, according to a study published in Neurology.

Half of the 121 participants in the study received stress management training, which included meeting with a therapist for 16 individual 50-minute sessions over five to six months.

They learned problem-solving skills, relaxation techniques, and how to increase positive activities and enhance social support. They were also given the option to choose extra sessions on topics such as fatigue management, anxiety reduction, pain management and insomnia treatment.

After the treatment ended, the stress management group was followed for another five to six months. The remaining participants were put on a waiting list as a control group. After 10 months, they attended a five-hour workshop on stress management.

During the treatment period, 77 percent of those in the stress management training group had no new lesions, or brain damage that indicates disease activity, compared to 55 percent of those in the control group.

The size of the effect is similar to other recent phase II trials of new drug therapies for MS, said study author David C. Mohr, PhD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

While its premature to make any specific recommendations about using this type of stress management training to manage MS disease activity, it will be important to conduct more research to identify specifically how this treatment is benefiting people with MS.

Furthermore, questionnaires revealed that those receiving the training had greater reductions in their stress levels than did those in the control group.

Interestingly, the positive effects of the training did not continue after the treatment period.

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Stress Management Prevents Brain Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis