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In the United States, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of accidental death and injury. Aggressive driving, which has been identified as a major risk factor for motor vehicle accidents by transportation authorities, is thus an important topic of study. This study compared the physiological reactivity of self-referred aggressive and nonaggressive drivers. Heart rate, blood pressure, facial muscle activity, and skin resistance were monitored as participants listened to idiosyncratic vignettes of driving and fear-provoking scenarios, as well as during a standard stressor task (mental arithmetic). The results were that aggressive drivers exhibited significant increases in muscle tension and blood pressure during the driving vignettes, relative to controls. They also responded to the fear vignette and mental arithmetic in a qualitatively different fashion from that of controls. The aggressive drivers responded to these stimuli with less overall heart rate and electrodermal reactivity, but increased blood pressure and muscle tension. In contrast, the controls responded to the fear vignette and mental arithmetic primarily with increased heart rates and decreased skin resistance. The findings suggest that both physiological hyperarousal as well as differential responses to stressful stimuli may contribute to aggressive driving. Implications for interventions with this population are discussed.

Previous research from the United Kingdom has shown hypnotherapy to be effective in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The current study provides a systematic replication of this work in the United States. Six matched pairs of IBS patients were randomly assigned to either a gut-directed hypnotherapy (n = 6) or to a symptom monitoring wait-list control condition (n = 6) in a multiple baseline across subjects design. Those assigned to the control condition were later crossed over to the treatment condition. Subjects were matched on concurrent psychiatric diagnoses, susceptibility to hypnosis, and various demographic features. On a composite measure of primary IBS symptoms, treatment was superior (p = .016) to symptom monitoring. Results from the entire treated sample (n = 11; one subject was removed from analysis) indicate that the individual symptoms of abdominal pain, constipation, and flatulence improved significantly. State and trait anxiety scores were also seen to decrease significantly. Results at the 2-month follow-up point indicated good maintenance of treatment gains. No significant correlation was found between initial susceptibility to hypnosis and treatment gain. A positive relationship was found between the incidence of psychiatric diagnosis and overall level of improvement.