Thanks Stephen & Scott! I strongly suspected that this was psychobabble and this information makes me even more convinced that this is the case.
Once again, TIPS proves to be an invaluable resource. Many thanks! -Don. ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] Date: Sunday, January 2, 2011 3:23 pm Subject: Re: [tips] "Observed & experiential integration therapy" To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > On 1 Jan 2011 at 15:53, don allen wrote: > > > > > Second: I just had a call from a psychiatrist friend of mine > who is > > doing an Independent Medical Exam (IME) on a patient who is > claiming > > severe post traumatic stress disorder. The patient is being > "treated" > > by Dr. Paul Swingle > (http://www.swingleandassociates.com/)using > > "Observed & Experiential Integration Therapy". A search of > > PsychAbstracts turned up no useful hits in the literature. > <snip> > > > So my questions are: > > > > Has anyone else heard about this "therapy"? > > Does it have any standing within the clinical community? > > A number of years ago I was asked by a former student to look > into > another therapy carried out by Dr. Swingle, neurofeedback or > neurotherapy for the alleged hyperactivity (ADD) of my student's > daughter. It took a supreme effort to locate my reply, which > turned > out to have been sent in 2000. > > According to my letter, Dr. Swingle is a former academic > psychologist > (at McMaster, as it happens, when I was a graduate student > there) > whose specialty was social psychology, in particular, game > theory. He > published a number of articles in this field in the 1960's, then > nothing for about the next 30 years. Then he published a paper > "Neurofeedback treatment of pseudoseizure disorder (Biological > Psychiatry, 1998). The paper was a report of three cases of > "pseudoseizure activity" in which he was able to modify some > index of > their brain activity, with little evidence that this helped > their > seizures. He noted "Due to the rare nature of this disorder, > however, > control groups are difficult to obtain, which in turn limits the > extent of these findings". > > I felt that if this was his best evidence for neurofeedback > therapy > for ADD, it was not impressive. Nor did I find evidence > published by > other authors advocating neurotherapy to be any more convincing. > In > addition, I had reservations concerning the use of brainwaves as > a > means of diagnosing the ADD of my student's daughter's in the > first > place, a method which seemed unorthodox and insufficiently validated. > > I suggested to my student that she should be extremely cautious > in > accepting the claims of this controversial therapy. A glance at > Dr. > Swingle's web page suggests that he continues to be a > advocate of > neurofeedback for a variety of conditions, and "Observed > and > Experiential Integration Therapy" is likely the same stuff or > similar. Perhaps he has managed to obtain better evidence since > I > last looked at the matter. > > Stephen > > -------------------------------------------- > Stephen L. Black, > Ph.D. > Professor of Psychology, Emeritus > Bishop's University > Sherbrooke, Quebec, > Canada > e-mail: sblack at > ubishops.ca > --------------------------------------------- > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13157.966b795bc7f3ccb35e3da08aebe98f18&n=T&l=tips&o=7608or > send a blank email to > leave-7608-13157.966b795bc7f3ccb35e3da08aebe98...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > Don Allen Retired professor Langara College --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7612 or send a blank email to leave-7612-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
