SynthesisJournal of human hypertension2008
Relaxation therapies for the management of primary hypertension in adults: a Cochrane review.
Synthesis in Journal of human hypertension, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of 12-Month Smartphone Breathing Meditation Program upon Systolic Blood Pressure among Non-Medicated Stage 1 Hypertensive Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Trial
- Effects of Hatha yoga on blood pressure, salivary α-amylase, and cortisol function among normotensive and prehypertensive youth.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2014Trial
- A Chinese Chan-based mind-body intervention improves psychological well-being and physical health of community-dwelling elderly: a pilot study.Clinical interventions in aging · 2014Trial
- Breathing awareness meditation and LifeSkills Training programs influence upon ambulatory blood pressure and sodium excretion among African American adolescents.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2011Trial
- Lifestyle interventions for the prevention and treatment of hypertension.Nature reviews. Cardiology · 2021Review
- Ethnicity Differences in Sleep Changes Among Prehypertensive Adults Using a Smartphone Meditation App: Dose-Response Trial.JMIR formative research · 2020Article
- Effect of nurse-led home-based biofeedback intervention on the blood pressure levels among patients with hypertension: Pretest-posttest study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2020Article
- Significance of psychosocial factors in cardiology: update 2018 : Position paper of the German Cardiac Society.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2019Review
- Heart Rate Variability and Perceived Stress as Measurements of Relaxation Response.Journal of clinical medicine · 2019Article
- Meditation smartphone application effects on prehypertensive adults' blood pressure: Dose-response feasibility trial.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2018Article
- The effectiveness of integrative medicine interventions on pain and anxiety in cardiovascular inpatients: a practice-based research evaluation.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2014Article
- Overview of systematic reviews: yoga as a therapeutic intervention for adults with acute and chronic health conditions.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2013Article
- Complementary and alternative medicine and cardiovascular disease: an evidence-based review.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2013Article
- Labile hypertension: lessons to be learned from musical improvisation.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2009Article
- Relax, but is there rest for the blood pressure?Journal of human hypertension · 2008Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The objective of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of relaxation to lower high blood pressure. We searched electronic bibliographic databases and grey literature to identify randomized controlled trials comparing relaxation therapies with no active treatment or sham therapy, enrolling adult participants with raised systolic blood pressure (SBP) > or = 140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > or = 85 mm Hg and follow-up > or = 8 weeks. Twenty-five trials with up to 5 years follow-up, assessing 1198 participants, met our inclusion criteria and were meta-analysed. Overall, relaxation resulted in small, statistically significant reductions in SBP (mean difference: -5.5 mm Hg, 95% CI: -8.2 to -2.8) and DBP (mean difference: -3.5 mm Hg, 95% CI: -5.3 to -1.6) compared to the control. Substantial heterogeneity between trials (I2 > 70%) was not explained by duration of follow-up, type of control, type of relaxation therapy or baseline blood pressure. The 9 trials that reported blinding of outcome assessors found a non-significant net reduction in blood pressure (SBP mean difference: -3.2 mm Hg, 95% CI: -7.7 to 1.4) associated with relaxation, as did the 15 trials comparing relaxation with sham therapy (SBP mean difference: -3.5 mm Hg, 95% CI: -7.1 to 0.2). Adequate randomization was confirmed in only seven trials and concealment of allocation in only one. In view of the poor quality of the included trials and unexplained variation between trials, the evidence in favour of a causal association between relaxation and blood pressure reduction is weak. Some of the apparent benefit of relaxation was probably due to aspects of treatment unrelated to relaxation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.