The efficacy of a new therapy, numerical distraction therapy (NDT), in treating symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was investigated. It was hypothesized that the therapy would change the traumatic visual memories of PTSD patients and reduce the intensity of negative feelings associated with them. Both hypotheses were supported: 92% of patients reported post-treatment (positive) changes in their visual memories, and these same patients reported diminished levels of fear, shame, anxiety and other negative feelings. A subsample of patients reported stable treatment effects in follow-up surveys conducted two to four months later. The author also discusses possible mechanisms of NDT and suggests that NDT, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and some forms of thought field therapy (TFT) might have “dual attention” as a common underlying mechanism.
Baddeley, A. (1982). Your memory: A user’s guide. New York: Macmillan.
2.
Baddeley, A. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255, 556-559.
3.
Bandler, R., & Grinder, J. (1979). Frogs into princes. Moab: Real People Press.
4.
Bergmann, U. (2000). Further thoughts on the neurobiology of EMDR: The role of the cerebellum in accelerated information processing. Traumatology. 6(3). http://www.greencross.org/_Research/TraumatologyJournal.asp
5.
Berndt, E. R., Bailit, H. L., Keller, M. B., Verner, J. C., & Finkelstein, S. N. (2000). Health care use and at-work productivity among employees with mental disorders. Health Affairs, 19(4), 244-256.
6.
Bremner, J. D. (2002). Does stress damage the brain?New York: W.W. Norton..
7.
Bremner, J. D., Staib, L., Kaloupek, D., Southwick, S. M., Soufer, R., & Charney, D. S. (1999). Neural correlates of exposure to traumatic pictures and sound in Vietnam combat veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): A positron emission tomography study. Biological Psychiatry, 45, 806-816.
8.
Callahan, R. (1985). Five minute phobia cure. Wilmington, DE: Enterprise.
9.
Callahan, R. J. (2001). The impact of thought field therapy on heart rate variability. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57(10), 1153-1170.
10.
Callahan, R.J. & Callahan, J. (1996). Thought field therapy (TFT) and trauma: Treatment and theory. Unpublished manual of the Thought Field Therapy Training Center, Indian Wells, California.
11.
Callahan, R. J. & Callahan, J. (1997). Thought field therapy: Aiding the bereavement process. In C. Figley, B. Bride, & N. Mazza (Eds.), Death and trauma: The traumatology of grieving. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
12.
Carbonell, J. L. & Figley, C. (1999). A systematic clinical demonstration of promising PTSD treatment approaches. Traumatology, 5(1). http://www.greencross.org/_Research/TraumatologyJournal.asp
13.
Carter, R. (1998). Mapping the mind. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
14.
Commons, M. L. (2000). The power therapies: A proposed mechanism for their action and suggestions for future empirical validation. Traumatology, 6(2). http://www.greencross.org/_Research/TraumatologyJournal.asp
15.
Craig, G. (1997). EFT: Emotional freedom techniques: A universal aid to healing. http://www.emofree.com
16.
Dehaene, S. (1997). The number sense: How the mind creates mathematics. New York: Oxford University Press.
17.
Diepold, J. H., Jr., Britt, V., Bender, S. (2004). Evolving Thought Field Therapy: The clinician’s handbook of diagnoses, treatment, and theory. New York: W.W. Norton.
18.
Durlacher, J. V. (1994). Freedom from fear forever. Tempe, AZ: Van Ness.
19.
Foa, E. B., Keane, T. M., & Friedman, M. J. (Eds.). (2000). Effective treatments for ptsd: Practice guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. New York: Guilford.
20.
Gallo, F. P. (1999). Explorations at the interface of energy, cognition, behaviors, and health. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
21.
Gerbode, F. (1989). Beyond psychology: An introduction to metapsychology (2nd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: IRM Press.
22.
Isaacs, J. S. (2003). Beyond talk therapy: Dual attention therapy and the transformation of memory. Manuscript in progress.
23.
Johnson, C., Shala, M., Sejdijaj, X., Odell, R., & Dabishevci, K. (2001). Thought field therapy—soothing the bad moments of Kosovo. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57(10), 1237-1240.
24.
Kavanaugh, D. J., Freese, S., Andrade, J., & May, J. (2001). Effects of visuospatial tasks on desensitization to emotive memories. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40, 267-280.
25.
Kotler, M., Iancu, I., Efroni, R., & Amir, M. (2001). Anger, impulsivity, social support, and suicide risk in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 189(3), 162-167.
26.
LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
27.
Lipke, H. (2000). EMDR and psychotherapy integration. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
28.
Manos, G. H. (2003). Posttraumatic stress disorder in an age of televised terrorism. Primary Psychiatry, 10(8), 36-42.
29.
Meltzer-Brody S., Hidalgo, R., Connor K. M., & Davidson, J. R. T. (2000). Posttraumatic stress disorder: Prevalence, health care use and costs, and pharmacologic considerations. Psychiatric Annals, 30, 722-730.
30.
Miller, G. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limitations on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.
31.
Morgan M. A., & LeDoux, J. E. (1995). Differential contribution of dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex to the acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear. Behavioral Neuroscience, 109, 681-688.
32.
Morgan, M. A., Romanski, L., & LeDoux, J. E. (1993). Extinction of emotional learning: Contribution of medial prefrontal cortex. Neuroscience Letters, 163, 109-113.
33.
Nicosia, G. (1994, March). A mechanism for dissociation suggested by the quantitative analysis of electroencephalography. Paper presented at the International EMDR Annual Conference, Sunnyvale, CA.
34.
Ochberg, F. (1993). Post-traumatic therapy. In J. P Wilson & B. Raphael (Eds.), International handbook of traumatic stress syndromes. New York: Plenum.
35.
Pignotti, M., & Steinberg, M. (2001). Heart rate variability as an outcome measure for thought field therapy in clinical practice. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57(10), 1193-1206.
36.
Pitman, R. K., Orr, S. P., Altman, B., Longpre, R. E., Poire, R. E., & Macklin, M. L. (1996). Emotional processing during eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy of Vietnam veterans with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 37, 419-429.
37.
Rauch, S., van der Kolk, B. A., Fisler R., Alpert, N. M., Orr, S. P., Savage, C. R., et al. (1996). Symptom provocation study of post-traumatic stress disorder using positron emission tomography and script-driven imagery. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 380-387.
38.
Renfrey, G., & Spates, C. R. (1994). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: A partial dismantling procedure. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 31, 231-239.
39.
Sakai, C., Paperny, D., Mathews, M., Tanida, G., Boyd, G., Simons, A., et al. (2001). Thought field therapy clinical applications: Utilization in an HMO in behavioral medicine and behavioral health sciences. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57(10), 1215-1227.
40.
Schacter, D. L. (1996). Searching for memory: The brain, the mind, and the past. New York: Basic Books.
41.
Schiffer, F., Teicher, M. H., Papanicolaou, A. C. (1995). Evoked potential evidence for right brain activity during the recall of traumatic memories. Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience, 7, 169-175.
42.
Seligman, M. (1994). What you can change and what you can’t. New York: Knopf.
43.
Shapiro, F. (1989). Efficacy of the eye movement desensitization procedure in the treatment of traumatic memories. Journal of Traumatic Stress Studies, 2, 199-223.
44.
Shapiro, F. (1991). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing procedure: From EMD to EMDR: A new treatment model for anxiety and related traumata. Behavior Therapist, 14, 133-135.
45.
Shapiro, F. (1995). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: Basic principles, protocols and procedures (1st ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
46.
Shapiro, F. (2001). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: Basic principles, protocols and procedures (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
47.
Stickgold, R. (2001). EMDR: A putative neurobiological mechanism of action. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(1), 61-75.
48.
Van der Kolk, B. A. (1996). Trauma and memory. In B. A. van der Kolk, A. C. McFarlane, & L. Weisaeth (Eds.), Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York: Guilford Press.
49.
Van Etten, M. L., & Taylor, S. (1998). Comparative efficacy of treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 5, 126-144.
50.
Wolpe, J. (1990). The practice of behavior therapy (4th ed.). New York: Pergamon Press.
