The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of autogenic training as a psychological intervention for cardiac disease. The effects of the autogenic training were assessed thorough the index of the cardiac autonomic function (Lorenz plot) at the time of the each exercises of the autogenic training. The subjects who participated in this study were the patients with atrial fibrillation mainly. And another purpose was to examine the change of the cardiac autonomic functions of the normal subjects at the time of the each exercise.
The results of the autogenic training to the patients were as follows. In three patients, the arrhythmic stroke was improved in about around three months. As for one patient, the clear effect was not found in about 11 months. And as for one another patient, the effect about the stroke was unknown.
All the patients that the effects were found about the strokes practiced the autogenic training regularly every day, and the exercises became a custom, and it was in a part of the life. Those patients also reported the improvements of the behavioral and psychological problems in the everyday life. The behavioral limitations in the life were improved by the anxiety for the strokes having disappeared.
However, from the evaluation results of the index of the cardiac autonomic functions at the time of the exercises of every time, the improvements of the index corresponding to the degree of progress of the exercises were not found. The results of the normal subjects were similar. As well as the comparison between autonomic nerve function indexes at the time of the exercise, it seemed that it was necessary to examine the changes of the activity of the autonomic nervous system at before and after the exercises and in the everyday life.