ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors explain specific efforts to date in applying operant-feedback methods to the lowering of blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension. Blanchard and Young have argued that the results for changes in cardiovascular functioning in operant-feedback studies have been of a statistically rather than a clinically significant magnitude. Research on the physiological effects of hypnosis and suggestion may allow more systematic exploration of these procedures in conjunction with operant-feedback methods. As Adam points out, interoceptive impulses provide normal afferent feedback control of the normal functioning of organs and symptoms from which they arise. The role of central imagery in developing feedback control of the viscera is under investigation. Benson and his associates summarize the application of operant-feedback techniques to the lowering of systolic blood pressure in seven hypertensive patients, five of whom had essential hypertension. A stickier issue concerns the need of patients to control their reactivity to their usual stressful environment.
