None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorder in the developed world. The prevalence of any anxiety disorder in general practice is approximately 13% (35.7% of patients in primary care have mental disorders). In the New Zealand (NZ) community the lifetime prevalence is 24.9% and the one month prevalence is 9.3%.Anxiety is associated with poorer mental, physical health, reduced role functioning and more physical pain. General practitioners are in a good position to treat anxiety but have limited access to psychological therapies and are not always keen (and patient resistance) on using medication. A brief and effective therapy would be very helpful. The rapid symptom shifting technique has worked well when used in clinical general practice. The aim of this research is to test the effectiveness of a rapid therapy for anxiety. The symptom shifting is an adaptation of Neurolingistic Programming (NLP) processes. We have recently completed the rapid phobia NLP cure (single visit) for fear of heights (funded by the Oakley Foundation) and we found a statistically significant result (as yet unpublished other than in a conference abstract).
Interventions
The intervention group will receive the Rapid Symptom Shift. The interviewer (a GP with 30 years experience, a masters student with research training and a alternative therapy practitioner with 20 years experience) asks the patient if they can describe where their anxiety is in space. While this may seem an unusual request, patients often have no difficulty in explaining where it is located. They are asked to describe their anxiety in terms of colour and shape. In almost all cases they say it is
The intervention group will receive the Rapid Symptom Shift. The interviewer (a GP with 30 years experience, a masters student with research training and a alternative therapy practitioner with 20 years experience) asks the patient if they can describe where their anxiety is in space. While this may seem an unusual request, patients often have no difficulty in explaining where it is located. They are asked to describe their anxiety in terms of colour and shape. In almost all cases they say it is close but has no shape and a variety of colours. Then they are asked to change the shape to a circle and put it in front of them. They are then asked what a “safe” colour for them is and to make the circle that colour. That image is then moved away visually and pushed to the horizon where it is stood up like a 50 cent piece. They are asked to then make it a 10 cent piece and put it face down so it is not visible. At this point they are asked how they feel about their “anxiety or stress’ and this visualisation from experience in the clinic almost always provides a positive response. We plan to measure this response with changes in the STAI questionnaire and the participant’s heart rate variability. The moving of the image to the horizon we think is the essential difference between the intervention and the control intervention. The mode of the interview delivery will be face to face on a one to one basis. It is done once only and lasts about 3 minutes. The interview will be conducted in University consulting rooms or private clinics.
Sponsors
University of Auckland
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
16 Years to 75 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Otherwise healthy volunteers with significant anxiety
Exclusion criteria
Inability to understand the information sheet.
Outcome results
None listed