Cranial Application of Low Level Transcranial Electrotherapy vs. Relaxation Instruction in Anxious Patients [Abstract]
Gibson, Thomas H, &
O'Hair, Donald E. American Journal of Electromedicine, 4(1):18-21, 1987.
Doctoral dissertation (TG), California School of Professional Psychology, 152
pages, 1983.
In this single blind study,
64 volunteer subjects responded to newspaper advertisements, 32 males and 32
females, ranging in age from 22 to 55 years old (mean = 36.64), who scored 50
or above on the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), completed informed
consent and were randomly assigned to 20 minutes relaxation training (RT) on
audio tape only, Alpha-Stim CES only, RT plus CES, or to a control group which
listened to a neutral audio tape and received sham CES.
There were 8 males plus 8
females in each group. 9 of the original 73 subjects were dropped from the
study due to failure to meet the study criteria or failure to show up.
Treatment time was 1, 20 minute session, and relaxation was measured by frontalis
muscle electromyogram (EMG) and a post treatment STAI. Subjects responded on
the STAI significantly (P<.001) better than controls and equally to either
RT alone with a means of 52.88 pretest to 32.19 post, CES alone: 52.31 pre to
30.06 post, or both RT and CES together: 53.69 pre to 30.44 post. The control
group only dropped from 53.25 to 51.94. The EMG trend paralleled the STAI with
means of 15.64 µV to 11.10 post test in the RT alone, 17.12 to 11.17 µV in the
CES alone, 17.41 to 9.77 µV in the combined group, and 14.14 to 14.47 µV in the
control group. Analysis of variance for EMG scores showed highly significant
F-ratios for the time variance term and the group X time interaction term.
Results were further verified by Tuckey’s tests for pair-wise comparisons.
The authors concluded that
the results of this study indicates that the Alpha-Stim may be a useful
adjunctive therapy for short term treatment of symptoms of anxiety. The
treatment appears to have about the same efficacy as the same amount of time of
relaxation instructions, but is easier to administer. No side effects were
reported.
The graph shows how the three
treatment groups fared on anxiety and EMG testing, with each of the three
groups significantly improved, while the controls did not change significantly.
 CES vs. Relaxation Instructions in Anxiety Patients 366.51 Kb
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