Seven continuous days of balneotherapy was applied to 17 patients with psychosomatic disease or neurosis at Sukawa Spa in Iwate prefecture. Several physiological parameters (e. g. blood pressure, heart rate, T wave amplitude of ECG, plasma catecholamines, and CV_R-R) were measured before and after that therapy. Subjective symptoms were also surveyed through a questionnaire and the correlations with the changes in such physiological parameters were studied. The subjects were divided into the effected group and non-effected group according to the evaluation of therapeutic effect.
Physiological paramenters other than plasma catecholamines tended to converge into a constant direction during the balneotherapy. While the physiological paramenters of the effected group tended to converge, those of the non-effected group did not show a trend. These results suggest that therapeutic effect of balneotherapy on psychosomatic diseases and neuroses is based upon not only the psychological effect of the environment of a hot spring but also the biological effect of non-specific alterative action of autonomic nervous system due to hot spring bathing itself.