Author(s)

Gregory Brown¹, Kavita Batra^2,3, Emily Dorin¹, Raveena Bakhru¹, Andrew Han¹, Arianna Palermini¹, Robert Sottile¹, Sherine Khanbijian¹, Michael Hower¹

¹Department of Psychiatry, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
²Office of Research, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
³Department of Medical Education, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.

Advanced Integrative Therapy [AIT] is an Energy Psychology-based system of intervention utilized by psychotherapists since the late 1990s. Recently, a study investigated the perceptions of therapists regarding the effectiveness of AIT in reducing negative emotions related to past traumatic events. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) are a set of well-researched Energy Psychology based interventions which have been established as an effective intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder. This study is the first to compare the effectiveness of AIT to EFT in reducing negative emotions associated with a particular memory in a sample of college and professional students, who were randomly assigned to the intervention. A total of 72 students (intervention AIT: n = 38, 52.8%) or EFT (intervention EFT: n = 34, 47.2%), completed a pre/post survey consisting of Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) scale, presence of the initial negative emotion, and presence of the original physical sensation. Both interventions led to a significant drop in SUD scores from over 4 (pre-intervention) to about 1 (post-intervention). There were no statistically significant differences observed in the post-intervention mean scores of SUD (1.03 ± 1.10 vs. 1.29 ± 0.71, p = 0.2) and HRV (52.02 ± 20.68 vs. 47.23 ± 21.55, p = 0.4) among both intervention arms. Interestingly, a significantly higher proportion of participants who underwent AIT required only one round of intervention to report their SUD dropped to 0 or 1 (elimination of negative emotion) as opposed to those with intervention EFT (47.4% vs. 14.7%, p = 0.012). The results of this trial suggest the equivalence of AIT and EFT, that AIT provides the same degree of robust response already documented with EFT in reducing the negative emotions associated with traumatic past experiences. This first randomized control trial (RCT) of AIT compared with a known effective treatment, EFT, provides an initial set of data to suggest that AIT demonstrates similar efficacy in the reduction of negative emotions associated with past traumatic experiences.

Advanced Integrative Therapy, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Subjective Units of Distress, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Brown, G. , Batra, K. , Dorin, E. , Bakhru, R. , Han, A. , Palermini, A. , Sottile, R. , Khanbijian, S. and Hower, M. (2023) Comparing AIT and EFT in Reduction of Negative Emotions Associated with a Past Memory: A Randomized Control Study. Psychology, 14, 1868-1887. doi: 10.4236/psych.2023.1412111.