None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorder in the developed world. Phobias are an anxiety disorder and are common in our community. The prevalence in general practice is approximately 13% (35.7% of patients in primary care have mental disorders). The morbidity associated with this has not been adequately quantified but anecdotally it can affect patient health care with a needle phobia interfering with blood testing and claustrophobia with an MRI scan. We plan to use the “Phobia Cure” to determine if it is effective in those with a fear of heights.
Interventions
Both the intervention group and the control group will get a neurolinguistic programming relaxation activity (known as the relaxation anchor). The technique asks the participant to think of a favourite place. They are asked to close their eyes and imagine what the place looks like, sounds like, feels like, smells like and tastes like. They are asked to repeat the experience and when they get to the change from seeing to hearing they are asked to touch their thumb to their index finger. They repe
Both the intervention group and the control group will get a neurolinguistic programming relaxation activity (known as the relaxation anchor). The technique asks the participant to think of a favourite place. They are asked to close their eyes and imagine what the place looks like, sounds like, feels like, smells like and tastes like. They are asked to repeat the experience and when they get to the change from seeing to hearing they are asked to touch their thumb to their index finger. They repeat this twice. Then they are asked to touch their thumb to their index finger and see if they can get back that pleasant sensation. This is known as a relaxation anchor. In addition the intervention group will get the the Phobia cure. This will be done by clinicians who will be trained in the technique. This requires the patient to relive an experience of when they were exposed to a height and felt stressful. They are asked to make a movie of that experience in their head and to imagine they are watching the movie from a seat in the theatre and that they are watching themselves watching the movie from the projection box. They run the movie forward in real time but in black and white and far away. Once they get to the end they are asked to float up in to the screen and be in the movie. They then run it backwards, in colour, as fast as possible such that their voice sounds like Donald Duck and their arms are waving in the air. They are asked to pop out the end from where they started the movie. They are asked how they feel about heights and if they feel better. The intervention can stopped there but up to three cycles may be needed to be certain that a change has occurred. Each therapy session will last about 30 minutes and after 3 cycles have been administered there will be no more cycles on that day or there after. There is a moment called a "break state" when the participant is asked to look out a window (to clear their thoughts). Between each cycle.
Sponsors
University of Auckland
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
16 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
HIQ score > 29 Able to read and write English Healthy volunteers
Exclusion criteria
1. Intoxication, dementia and terminal illness. 2. Psychotic disorder.
Outcome results
None listed