A One Year Follow-Up of a Placebo Controlled Behavioural Treatment of Peripheral Vasospasm

This paper presents the outcome of a twelve months follow-up of a behavioural treatment of 12 subjects suffering from peripheral vasospasm of the type Raynaud's disease. The subjects were offered a behavioural treatment with a classical conditioning procedure. The method was intended to weaken the unconditioned link between cold and peripheral vasoconstriction. This was accomplished by having patients in a cold room (+3 °C) while their hands were immersed in warm water (+3 °C) causing vasodilation (10 trials). Six of the subjects formed a placebo group, which received the same procedure as the treatment group except for the temperature of the water. This group was later given active treatment. The objective measures of decrease in finger temperature during cold test as well as the subjective recording of number of attacks demonstrated the short-term effectiveness of the active treatment, reported earlier in this journal (Melin and Fagerstrom, 1981). The present paper shows that the positive effects were maintained at 12 months follow-up. However, data indicate that booster sessions are important for maintenance.