A Quantitative Assessment of an Alternative Anti-depression Therapy: Pilot Study
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 3
Abstract
he goal of this pilot study was to evaluate psychometric testing to establish objective assessments for treating depression and co-morbid anxiety. Clients of The Sidman Institute were asked to take the BDI-II and BAI before and after three therapy sessions. Short-Term Sidman Hypnotherapy (STSH), independent of antidepressants, resulted in significant improvement by Wilcoxon analysis of BDI-II (Z=3.264, p=0.0011) and BAI (Z=3.233, p=0.0013) with large effect sizes (>0.9). Rumination-associated symptoms decreased significantly, and retrospective followup with previous clients indicated no relapse from one to three years post therapy, further indicating treatment effectiveness. Introduction: Psychometric tests are used to compare subjective and objective responses to anti depression and anti anxiety therapies. The 2004 FDA’s Black Box Warning, concerning potentially serious side effects of antidepressants, has changed attitudes about these medications. Effective therapy generally occurs with psychotherapy and antidepressants, requiring many weeks of therapy, followed by periodic monitoring [1]. Antidepressant use is controversial, medical compliance is often difficult, and extends for long periods of time [2-4]. After initial improvement, those most susceptible to remission of depression ruminate, and this was considered a predictor of relapse [5,6]. Short-Term Sidman Hypnotherapy (STSH), requiring only three to six sessions, is an alternative modality for various psychological and physical conditions. Method: This one-group, pretest/post-test pilot study with a relatively small sample size utilized clients of the Sidman Institute, during 2009, who expressed a desire for anti depression therapy. The criteria for selection were ages 18 through 75, a baseline BDI-II score of at least 6, and an informed consent agreement. An assessment of visual, auditory and kinesthetic abilities served as the determinant for exclusion, since they are critical to STSH. Clients were not excluded because they used antidepressants. Post-test administration of the BDI-II and BAI followed a variable latency period. Since pretreatment and post-treatment BDI-II and BAI severity appears to be equivalent among men and women [7], both were combined into a single experimental group. Mean (m) pretest and post-test scores and their s.d. were calculated for the various experimental groups and are shown in Table 1. The mean time in days between pretest and post-test scores, as well as the mean times between the first and third therapy sessions and between the third therapy session and post-test, are presented in the text along with their standard deviations. Because of the small sample size, modern nonparametric statistical methods were employed in order to minimize heteroscedasticity. This allowed for the treatment of potential outliers by Wilcoxon Analysis (WA) [8]. WA is robust enough for analyzing the main effect of the dependent variable scores (BDI-II and BAI). Participants taking antidepressants were compared to the non-medicated participants by the Mann-Whitney U test (U).
Authors and Affiliations
Jacqueline Sidman, Max D Lechtman, H Vernon Roohk, Steven J Hershey
Keywords
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- EP ID EP569588
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000255
- Views 179
- Downloads 0
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