Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Short Communication: The effect of a one-hour Eastern stress management session on salivary cortisol Cecilia L.W. Chan,* ,†,1,2 Ivy F. Tso, 1 Rainbow T.H. Ho, 1 S.M. Ng, 1 Celia H.Y. Chan, 1 Juliana C.N. Chan, 3 Julian C.L. Lai, 4 and Phil D. Evans 5 1 Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong, P. R. China 2 Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, P. R. China 3 Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, P. R. China 4 Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, P. R. China 5 School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK * Correspondence to: Prof. Cecilia Chan, Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong, G/F Pauline Chan Building, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, P. R. China. Tel: 852-2589-0501. Fax: 852-2816-6710. † E-mail: cecichan@hku.hk Stress and Health Stress and Health 22: 45–49 (2006) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/smi.1075 Received 5 May 2005; Revised 30 August 2005; Accepted 9 September 2005 Summary The Eastern stress management techniques derived from the Body-Mind-Spirit (BMS) model by Chan (2001) have been applied to interventions for a variety of clienteles and the effectiveness has been supported by positive psychological outcomes. This study aims to complement these studies by evaluating the efficacy of a one-hour Eastern stress management session in reducing salivary cortisol levels in working adults in Hong Kong. Pre- and post-test salivary cortisol levels were measured and a significant drop after the session when compared with local normative data was evident. The efficacy of the stress management session, limitations of this study and sugges- tions for further research are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. After a century of investigation, there is a bulk of evidence supporting the association between stress and susceptibilities to diseases including viral infections, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and a number of psychiatric conditions (Biondi & Zannino, 1997; Orth-Gomer, Chesney, & Wenger, 1998; Tafet & Bernardini, 2003; Vanltallie, 2002). A variety of techniques has been developed or adopted for stress manage- ment, for example, physical exercise, hypnosis, progressive relaxation, cranial electrotherapy stimulation, Tai Chi, yoga, guided imagery, and mindfulness meditation. Such techniques have been demonstrated in reviews to be effective in fostering resistance and resilience to stress and Key Words Eastern; relaxation; salivary cortisol; stress management; mind-body medicine Introduction Stress is ubiquitous in daily life. Stressors can take forms in school exam, interpersonal conflicts, work distress, traumatic experience, and so on.