A behavior management program to increase social responses in psychogeriatric patients.

Although increased numbers of psychogeriatric patients have been placed in proprietary nursing homes in recent years, many facilities have not been able to accommodate the behavioral problems involved. This study summarizes the results of a behavior management program for improving the social functioning and social behaviors of 6 psychogeriatric patients in a nursing home. The use of reinforcement by tokens substantially improved social behavior over a 10-day period; during a 10-day withdrawal of reinforcement, the level dropped precipitantly; but during the subsequent 10-day reinforcement period, substantial improvement in social functioning again was observed. Four of the 6 patients improved significantly, and after one year could be placed in a higher-level unit of the nursing home. The findings suggest that behavior management programs can be used successfully to improve the social functioning of psychogeriatric patients.

Electromyograph biofeedback as an adjunct to standard psychiatric treatment.

The effectiveness of electromyograph (EMG) biofeedback training was studied among 2 groups of psychiatric patients, and a control group of normal subjects. Both the psychiatric patients and the normal subjects received 6 sessions of training in deep muscle relaxation and biofeedback. The schizophrenic and psychoneurotic patients had significantly lower ratings for pathological symptomatology and abnormal behavior and all groups significantly reduced their level of muscle tension following the treatment; the schizophrenics and normals displayed significantly greater reductions than the psychoneurotic patients. The length of hospitalization for the 2 groups of patients in the study was lower than for similar patients who received standard psychiatric treatment but no biofeedback training. These results suggest that EMG training can be a beneficial adjunctive treatment for severely disturbed patients.