6 resulting from practicing TC. The psychological beneﬁts included “feel more relaxed,” “calming eﬀect of doing TC,” and “energy level somewhat improved.” The authors suggested that their program encouraged social participation and support partner involvement might have a positive inﬂuence on exercise persistence, as well as the health and well-being of both the PD patients and their support partners [73]. 5.7. HIV Patients (AIDS Patients). McCain et al. [74] evalu- ated TC as a complementary intervention in a randomized clinical trial which included an HIV-positive control group, assessing speciﬁc biopsychosocial eﬀects in individuals living with various stages of AIDS. Dependent measures included psychoneuroimmunology-based outcomes in the domains of psychosocial functioning (perceived stress, coping strategies, perceived social support, and psychological distress), quality of life (including spiritual/existential well-being), and phys- ical health (neuroendocrine mediators, immune status, and disease progression). A total of 59 participants completed TC training, and 56 individuals completed the waitlisted control condition. Using multivariate analysis of covariance, the pre- to postintervention comparisons indicated that; after the intervention, those in the TC group had higher existential well-being, had higher perceptions of social support in the realm of guidance, and more frequently used appraisal- focused coping strategies. Robins et al. [17] conducted a randomized clinical trial to determine whether three short-term stress management interventions (TC training, spiritual growth groups, and cognitive-behavioral stress management) improved psy- chosocial functioning, quality of life, and neuroendocrine- immune function in persons with varying stages of AIDS disease. Additionally, qualitative interviews were conducted with a randomly selected subset of participants to explore their unique stress experiences. The results indicated that the TC intervention may account for clinically meaningful improvements in psychosocial functioning and may mod- erate the progression of AIDS disease through enhanced quality of life and coping mechanisms. A randomized clinical trial conducted by McCain et al. [75] was designed to test eﬀects of three 10-week stress management approaches, including cognitive-behavioral relaxation training (RLXN), focused TC training (TCHI), and spiritual growth groups (SPRT), compared to a wait- listed control group (CTRL) with no treatment, 4 groups contained 252 individuals with HIV. The results indicated that both the RLXN and TCHI groups were found using less emotion-focused coping than the CTRL group, with all treatment groups having augmented lymphocyte pro- liferative function, which accordingly enhanced immune function to some degree. The ﬁndings of this study suggested that immune function and quality of life may be enhanced with cognitive-behavioral stress management, TC, and spirituality-based interventions. Overall, the above studies suggest that practicing TC can have positive psychological beneﬁts to those who understand they are living with a Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine medical condition which has a relatively high probability of signiﬁcantly reducing their life expectancy. 6. Recommendation Despite the multitude of studies reporting positive psy- chological beneﬁts of practicing TC, TC has not gained universal acceptance in the culture of Western medicine as an eﬀective alternative to more traditional form of exercise. A factor in this resistance may be attributed, in part, to the lack of scientiﬁc rigor in the experimental design of many of the studies reporting the psychological beneﬁts of TC. Therefore, it is recommended that future studies should be concerned with experimental design, execution, analysis, and results reported by those researchers conducting TC- related research. In particular, attention should be paid to the training of the participants, qualiﬁcations of exercise instructors, the criteria for the inclusion and exclusion of the subjects, the inclusion of control groups, and the statistics used to evaluate the possibility of a successful TC intervention. 7. Summary This paper has summarized many of the studies that have included psychologically based dependent measures. The existing data indicates that the TC provides positive psychological beneﬁts to its practitioners including children, teenagers, young adults, older adults, and those with a variety of chronic health conditions. These psychological beneﬁts are reported to include reductions in mood disturbances, sadness, anger, and confusion, as well as improvements in sleep quality, mood states, happiness and overall psycho- logical well-being. In conclusion, the literature suggests that TC is a valuable method by which to enhance or maintain a healthy state of psychological functioning for a variety of populations. However, future research utilizing rigorous scientiﬁc design principles is necessary to further document the positive psychological beneﬁts of TC and to gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying these beneﬁts. References [1] A. LaPerriere, G. Ironson, M. H. Antoni, N. Schneiderman, N. Klimas, and M. A. Fletcher, “Exercise and psychoneuroim- munology,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 182–190, 1994. [2] F. Li, T. E. Duncan, S. C. Duncan, E. McAuley, N. R. Chaumeton, and P. Harmer, “Enhancing the psychological well-being of elderly individuals through Tai Chi exercise: a latent growth curve analysis,” Structural Equation Modeling, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 53–83, 2001. [3] F. Li, E. McAuley, P. Harmer, T. E. Duncan, and N. R. Chaume- ton, “Tai Chi enhances self-eﬃcacy and exercise behavior in older adults,” Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 161–171, 2001. [4] R. E. Taylor-Piliae, W. L. Haskell, N. A. Stotts, and E. S. Froelicher, “Improvement in balance, strength, and ﬂexibility after 12 weeks of Tai Chi exercise in ethnic Chinese adults