Abstract
Background: Thought field therapy (TFT) is used for many psychiatric conditions, but its efficacy has not been sufficiently documented. Hence, there is a need for studies comparing TFT to well-established treatments. This study compares the efficacy of TFT and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for patients with agoraphobia.Methods: Seventy-two patients were randomized to CBT (N = 24), TFT (N = 24) or a wait-list condition (WLC) (N = 24) after a diagnostic procedure including the MINI PLUS that was performed before treatment or WLC. Following a 3 months waiting period, the WL patients were randomized to CBT (n = 12) or TFT (n = 12), and all patients were reassessed after treatment or waiting period and at 12 months follow-up. At first we compared the three groups CBT, TFT, and WL. After the post WL randomization, we compared CBT (N = 12 + 24 = 36) to TFT (N = 12 + 24 = 36), applying the pre-treatment scores as baseline for all patients. The primary outcome measure was a symptom score from the Anxiety Disorders Interview Scale that was performed by an interviewer blinded to the treatment condition. For statistical comparisons, we used the independent sample’s t-test, the Fisher’s exact test and the ANOVA and ANCOVA tests.Results: Both CBT and TFT showed better results than the WLC (p < 0.001) at post-treatment. Post-treatment and at the 12-month follow-up, there were not significant differences between CBT and TFT (p = 0.33 and p = 0.90, respectively).Conclusion: This paper reports the first study comparing TFT to CBT for any disorder. The study indicated that TFT may be an efficient treatment for patients with agoraphobia.Trial Registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier NCT00932919.
Highlights
Anxiety disorders are common (Kringlen et al, 2001), the number of therapists delivering documented effective treatments has been limited (Collins et al, 2011)
The study indicated that Thought field therapy (TFT) may be an efficient treatment for patients with agoraphobia
We found a negative effect of benzodiazepine use in our study upon the primary effect variable, but we found no differences between cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and TFT, suggesting that such use did not influence the relative effect of the two treatments
Summary
Anxiety disorders are common (Kringlen et al, 2001), the number of therapists delivering documented effective treatments has been limited (Collins et al, 2011). It is of value to test other therapies aimed at reducing the symptoms of anxiety disorders, therapies that practitioners can learn quickly and One such group of therapies are the socalled energy psychology therapies, primarily in the forms of TFT (Callahan and Trubo, 2001) or EFT (Craig, 2007). These therapies consist of imaginal exposure combined with acupressure, i.e., tapping at acupoints, and aim to reduce anxiety over the course of a few sessions (Callahan and Trubo, 2001), having the potential to reach many patients. This study compares the efficacy of TFT and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for patients with agoraphobia
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