Treating Spider Phobia Using Neuro Emotional Technique™: Findings from a Pilot Study

Estimating the accuracy of muscle response testing: two randomised-order blinded studies

Background

Manual muscle testing (MMT) is a non-invasive assessment tool used by a variety of health care providers to evaluate neuromusculoskeletal integrity, and muscular strength in particular. In one form of MMT called muscle response testing (MRT), muscles are said to be tested, not to evaluate muscular strength, but neural control. One established, but insufficiently validated, application of MRT is to assess a patient’s response to semantic stimuli (e.g. spoken lies) during a therapy session. Our primary aim was to estimate the accuracy of MRT to distinguish false from true spoken statements, in randomised and blinded experiments. A secondary aim was to compare MRT accuracy to the accuracy when practitioners used only their intuition to differentiate false from true spoken statements.

Methods

Two prospective studies of diagnostic test accuracy using MRT to detect lies are presented. A true positive MRT test was one that resulted in a subjective weakening of the muscle following a lie, and a true negative was one that did not result in a subjective weakening of the muscle following a truth. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 using a simplified methodology. In Experiment 1, 48 practitioners were paired with 48 MRT-naïve test patients, forming unique practitioner-test patient pairs. Practitioners were enrolled with any amount of MRT experience. In Experiment 2, 20 unique pairs were enrolled, with test patients being a mix of MRT-naïve and not-MRT-naïve. The primary index test was MRT. A secondary index test was also enacted in which the practitioners made intuitive guesses (“intuition”), without using MRT. The actual verity of the spoken statement was compared to the outcome of both index tests (MRT and Intuition) and their mean overall fractions correct were calculated and reported as mean accuracies.

Results

In Experiment 1, MRT accuracy, 0.659 (95% CI 0.623 - 0.695), was found to be significantly different (p < 0.01) from intuition accuracy, 0.474 (95% CI 0.449 - 0.500), and also from the likelihood of chance (0.500; p < 0.01). Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1. Testing for various factors that may have influenced MRT accuracy failed to detect any correlations.

Conclusions

MRT has repeatedly demonstrated significant accuracy for distinguishing lies from truths, compared to both intuition and chance. The primary limitation of this study is its lack of generalisability to other applications of MRT and to MMT.

Study registration

The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR; www.anzctr.org.au; ID # ACTRN12609000455268, and US-based ClinicalTrials.gov (ID # NCT01066312).

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12906-016-1416-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A case study of chiropractic management of pregnancy-related heartburn with postulated fetal epigenome implications

OBJECTIVE

This case study reports on chiropractic care for pregnancy-related heartburn. The purpose of this article is to relate the benefit of chiropractic treatment for one individual, to contrast chiropractic management with the biomedical standard of care for pregnancy-related heartburn, and to point to potential epigenetic implications of the standard of care.

CLINICAL FEATURES

A 32-year-old woman who was 24 weeks pregnant presented with persistent heartburn that she was treating with ranitidine (Zantac®) and calcium carbonate (Tums®) daily at the initiation of chiropractic care.

INTERVENTION AND OUTCOME

Findings of the initial examination were thoracic intersegmental dysfunction and pain upon palpation of the diaphragm, with hypertonicity noted. Therapy localization was positive for reflexes associated with the esophagus and lower esophageal sphincter, suggesting spasms. Emotional components also were identified in association with the symptoms by the use of a mind-body therapy called NeuroEmotional Technique. The patient was treated by adjusting the thoracic spine, manually releasing the diaphragm spasms, and releasing the esophageal spasm with an activator (a small hand-held instrument that creates a percussive force). The patient was symptom-free and did not use medication after the fifth treatment. She was followed throughout the remainder of her pregnancy and was asymptomatic and required no further treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

A larger study should investigate the effectiveness of chiropractic care for the treatment of pregnancy-related heartburn.

A case series evaluating the accuracy of manual muscle testing for predicting fetal sex

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate if manual muscle testing (MMT) could identify fetal sex in women who did not know the sex of their babies. The null hypothesis was that MMT is no more accurate than chance.

METHODS

A prospective case series of 27 sequential pregnant patients who did not know the sex of their fetus were included in this study. The examiner was also blind to the sex of the fetus. Manual muscle testing was evaluated after the mother stated "I am having a boy." Likelihood ratios, specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were calculated.

RESULTS

Fourteen girl babies and 13 boy babies were born. Manual muscle testing accurately predicted the sex 13 times. The positive likelihood ratio was 0.92 (95% confidence interval, 0.42-2.03), sensitivity was 0.40, specificity was 0.54, positive predictive value was 0.46, and negative predictive value was 0.44.

CONCLUSION

Manual muscle testing was no better than chance at predicting fetal sex in this case series.

Improving general flexibility with a mind-body approach: a randomized, controlled trial using neuro emotional Technique®

General flexibility is a key component of health, well-being, and general physical conditioning. Reduced flexibility has both physical and mental/emotional etiologies and can lead to musculoskeletal injuries and athletic underperformance. Few studies have tested the effectiveness of a mind-body therapy on general flexibility. The aim of this study was to investigate if Neuro Emotional Technique® (NET), a mind-body technique shown to be effective in reducing stress, can also improve general flexibility. The sit-and-reach test (SR) score was used as a measure of general flexibility. Forty-five healthy participants were recruited from the general population and assessed for their initial SR score before being randomly allocated to receive (a) two 20-minute sessions of NET (experimental group); (b) two 20-minute sessions of stretching instruction (active control group); or (c) no intervention or instruction (passive control group). After intervention, the participants were reassessed in a similar manner by the same blind assessor. The participants also answered questions about demographics, usual water and caffeine consumption, and activity level, and they completed an anxiety/mood psychometric preintervention and postintervention. The mean (SD) change in the SR score was +3.1 cm (2.5) in the NET group, +1.2 cm (2.3) in the active control group and +1.0 cm (2.6) in the passive control group. Although all the 3 groups showed some improvement, the improvement in the NET group was statistically significant when compared with that of either the passive controls (p = 0.015) or the active controls (p = 0.021). This study suggests that NET could provide an effective treatment in improving general flexibility. A larger study is required to confirm these findings and also to assess longer term effectiveness of this therapy on general flexibility.

A mind-body approach for precompetitive anxiety in power-lifters: 2 case studies

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this article is to report how Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) was used for precompetitive anxiety in 2 power-lifting athletes.

CLINICAL FEATURES

Two athletes (1 elite and 1 novice), who were participating in major competitions within 2 weeks of testing, were assessed for cognitive and somatic anxiety levels pre- and postintervention. Three psychometrics were used to measure mental state (cognitive anxiety): the Sports Competitive Anxiety Test, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, and the SF-36v2 Health Survey. To assess somatic anxiety, saliva samples were collected and screened for cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone.

INTERVENTION AND OUTCOME

The intervention was performed by a doctor of chiropractic and consisted of one 30-minute session of NET that focused on the athletes' concerns regarding the upcoming competitions. The results showed reductions in reported subjective anxiety levels and changes in the salivary hormone profile of both athletes following the intervention, with the more remarkable changes occurring in the novice athlete. The reduction in reported cognitive anxiety levels and the change in somatic anxiety markers may be the result of the mind-body intervention. However, these changes may also be attributed to other factors, such as the natural course of anxiety during competition. An experimental trial would be required to determine the effectiveness of NET for reducing precompetitive anxiety of power-lifters.

CONCLUSION

Neuro Emotional Technique may have helped these power-lifters control emotional arousal and precompetitive anxiety. However, caution is warranted when using these results to draw conclusions or when extrapolating these results to other settings.

The use of Neuro Emotional Technique with competitive rowers: A case series

INTRODUCTION

Power has been shown to consistently predict rowing performance, yet traditional methods to improve power may negatively impact performance when coupled with endurance training. Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) has been found to reduce stress and anxiety, which are also known to impair performance. The aim of this prospective case series was to describe how NET was used with competitive rowers, and to report any changes in average power output following the intervention.

CLINICAL FEATURES

Seven elite rowers were tested using the Max Power Test, one week before and one week after a session of NET. Five of athletes performed better following the NET intervention, while two athletes performed worse.

DISCUSSION

Many factors may have contributed to the changes in power output that these athletes experienced. Since this study was a case series and only a small sample was used, it lacked a comparison group. Therefore, no inferences or generalizations can be made. The changes seen may not be directly attributed to the NET intervention, but may the result of other factors, such as learning, normal training effects, or assessment bias. The primary limitations of this study include its qualitative design (i.e. a case report), and the appropriateness / usefulness of its primary outcome measure, the Max Power Test.

CONCLUSION

This case series demonstrates one plausible use of NET with athletes, however, a randomized, controlled trial is needed to determine its effectiveness before causality can be inferred.