Complementary and alternative healthcare are becoming increasingly interesting for the treatment of various medical phenomena and other conventional procedures. There are many studies that provide the evidence of their positive effect. Visualization, which can be defined as the mental formation of sensory experiences without actual stimuli, has been proven to be an effective complementary method in many medical fields. The purpose of our pilot study was to determine whether visualization of positive emotions increases the secretion of oxytocin and if it decreases the secretion of cortisol. Furthermore, we studied if it improves affective mood states (depression, stress, anxiety, subjective well-being) and if it increases heart rate variability. 27 healthy individuals were included in the study. Participants were divided into two experimental groups. The first experimental group performed visualization of positive emotions for four weeks, and the second experimental group performed progressive muscle relaxation for four weeks. We used the dependent sample t-test and the Wilcoxon test to determine the effect of visualisation. More specifically, we used two dependent samples. The t-test for two independent samples and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the effect between the experimental groups. The average effects of visualization moved in the expected direction, but they were not statistically significant except for the heart rate variability measured by SDNN, which was significantly higher after 4 weeks of visualization. There were no statistically significant differences in effect between the groups for any of the observed variables. The findings of the study could serve as the basis for the development of a model of postinfarct treatment with oxytocin.
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