CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - Testy drivers prone to tailgating, loud honking and cutting others off in heavy traffic might benefit from psychotherapy, researchers report.

Two types of psychological therapy "helped angry drivers continue to lower their angry feelings, change their angry thoughts, and engage in less aggression on the road a year after counseling," according to researcher Dr. Jerry Deffenbacher of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

He presented the findings here Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

Media reports of violent altercations between drivers on America's highways have placed "road rage" in the spotlight. In previous research on the subject, Deffenbacher's team found that people with chronic high levels of anger experience feelings of road rage at nearly three times the rate of more serene individuals. Angry drivers are also much more prone to break the speed limit or display signs of aggression such as cutting other drivers off or giving them "the finger."

In their latest study, the Colorado researchers sought to determine if two types of psychotherapy--cognitive therapy and relaxation coping--might help reduce anger flare-ups and road-rage behaviors in those most at risk. To do so, they followed the one-year post-therapy outcomes of 139 college students, all of whom scored high on a standard Driving Anger test as they entered the study.

In the first type of approach, cognitive therapy, the anger-prone are taught to re-examine their attitudes toward stressful on-the-road events, with the aim of reducing anger when these "triggers" occur.

According to Deffenbacher, this type of counseling succeeded in keeping anger levels down and road rage to a minimum for one full year after treatment. "As they learned to rethink situations their anger lowered, and they were able to employ less aggressive, safer ways of dealing with the situation," he told Reuters Health.

In the second form of therapy, relaxation coping, individuals are taught relaxation skills--such as breathing exercises or visualizing a calming scene--that can help ease tension in stressful situations.

This approach proved just as effective in calming anger-prone drivers, the study found. Deffenbacher pointed out that relaxation techniques allowed individuals to "lower their anger, think things through more clearly, and make less angry, (less) aggressive choices about how to handle frustrations on the road."

He stressed that while psychotherapy appears to work for the anger-prone, it is too early to say whether it would work for hardcore "road rage" types, especially those brought before the courts.

"Repeat offenders may have different characteristics," he said, including being uncooperative when counseling is made available. Any mandated therapy "will need to build in interventions that to deal with resistance to counseling and to being mandated to attend," Deffenbacher said.

For the rest of us, a few simple steps might help us cruise on through to safer, serene driving:

-- Ditch the anger before you drive. People who get behind the wheel hot and bothered are "like a lit fuse ready to explode," Deffenbacher said. Using relaxation techniques to help ease anger could spare drivers further troubles down the road.

-- Get to know what makes you mad. Deffenbacher suggests habitually frustrated drivers take notes on those situations (i.e., getting cut off, or tailgaters) that really get their goat. "When you know yourself better, you will be able to see or feel anger coming on and be able to intercept it."

-- Take your mind off it. Did another driver just flip you the bird as he drove by? Never mind. Turn the radio to your favorite music station, think about a loved one, even hum a tune. Anything to distract you from the stressor.

-- Remember, this isn't Indy. "Driving is not a competition," Deffenbacher points out. "If you are a competitive driver, change your attitude and see how it feels." This means driving for yourself, not others. "If they want to go faster, let them. If they want to move into your lane, let them." The key, he said, is to bliss out and "accept that others will drive differently than you would like them to."

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