Thought Field Therapy (TFT) as a Treatment for Anxiety Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Irgens, Audun; Dammen, Toril; Nysæter, Tor Erik; Hoffart, Asle

doi:10.1016/j.explore.2012.08.002

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…Our findings are also consistent with those of the other five RCTs on clinical populations with an anxiety disorder, including two on TFT (Schoninger and Hartung, 2010; Irgens et al, 2012) and three on EFT (Baker and Siegel, 2010; Jones et al, 2011; Salas et al, 2011), as described in the review by Feinstein (2012). While the TFT in the present study demonstrates positive results as a treatment for agoraphobia, Goldstein et al (2000) showed poor results for EMDR in treating panic disorder with agoraphobia.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…In order for the intervention to have clinical validity, we chose to apply the Norwegian standard TFT treatment package, which consists of five sessions (Irgens et al, 2012). Clark’s treatment manual for agoraphobia prescribes 12 sessions (Hawton et al, 1989).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schoninger and Hartung (2010) demonstrated a highly significant reduction (ES = 1.52) in public speaking anxiety following TFT ( N = 28) compared to a wait-list condition (WLC) ( N = 20). Irgens et al (2012) found a significantly larger symptom reduction in patients with various, often comorbid, anxiety disorders treated with TFT ( N = 23) compared to the WLC ( N = 22) on 50% of the outcome measures. In these studies, the improvements were sustained at 5 and 12 months, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…In this study, 36 patients were given a TFT treatment package of five 50- to 55-min sessions of individual therapy, which was standard procedure in Norway (Irgens et al, 2012). The treatment was based on the TFT guidelines created by Callahan and Trubo (2001), and as with most psychotherapy, the treatment started with taking the history and creating an overview of the patient’s social situation and risk factors.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of the 18 RCTs, only two addressed the use of TFT for anxiety disorders (Schoninger and Hartung, 2010; Irgens et al, 2012). Schoninger and Hartung (2010) demonstrated a highly significant reduction (ES = 1.52) in public speaking anxiety following TFT ( N = 28) compared to a wait-list condition (WLC) ( N = 20).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thought Field Therapy Compared to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Wait-List for Agoraphobia: A Randomized, Controlled Study with a 12-Month Follow-up

et al. 2017

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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.

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