Effect of exposure-based vs traditional cognitive behavior therapy for [FM]: a two-site single-blind randomized controlled trial 2023 Hedman-Lagerlöf

Fibromyalgia is a debilitating pain condition for which treatment effects are typically modest. The most evaluated psychological treatment is traditional cognitive behavior therapy (T-CBT), but promising effects have recently been seen in exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy (Exp-CBT). We investigated whether Exp-CBT was superior to T-CBT in a randomized controlled trial. Self-referred participants with fibromyalgia (N = 274) were randomized (1:1) to 10 weeks of Exp-CBT or T-CBT. Treatments were delivered online and presented as “CBT for fibromyalgia.” Participants were assessed at baseline, weekly during treatment, posttreatment, and at 6- and 12-month follow-up. Primary outcome was the difference in reduction in fibromyalgia severity as measured using the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) over 11 assessment points from baseline to posttreatment, modelled within an intention-to-treat framework using linear mixed effects models fitted on multiple imputed data. Approximately 91% of weekly FIQ scores were collected over the main phase. There was no significant difference between Exp-CBT and T-CBT in the mean reduction of fibromyalgia severity from pretreatment to posttreatment (b = 1.3, 95% CI −3.0 to 5.7, P = 0.544, d = −0.10). Minimal clinically important improvement was seen 60% in Exp-CBT vs 59% in T-CBT. Effects were sustained up to 12 months posttreatment. This well-powered randomized trial indicated that Exp-CBT was not superior to T-CBT for fibromyalgia. Both treatments were associated with a marked reduction in fibromyalgia severity, and the online treatment format might be of high clinical utility. T-CBT can still be regarded a reference standard treatment that remains clinically relevant when compared to novel treatment approaches.

Effect of exposure-based vs traditional cognitive behavior t... : PAIN (lww.com)

 

article on the paper

Study: Traditional CBT as effective as exposure therapy for fibromyalgia (msn.com)

 

So just like the FITNET Crawley paper, they compare 2 useless treatments, found them to be equally ineffective, but conclude that they are both effective, since the trials are biased to produce an effect. They effectively do basic arithmetic where A=0, B=0, therefore A and B = 100%, since this is the way this treatment model works, they take any BS number and assert that it should work on everyone.

This is insane. There is no other way to describe this ideology. No matter what they do, they just write it down as successful, and no one seems to care outside of a small number of people.

This is a phobia-focused approach:

And it amounts to abuse to subject people without phobias to this, it more or less amounts to CBT + GET. They can call that exposure if they want, this is absurd. This ideology is textbook banality of evil, but the only way they could ever understand this is if they themselves experienced it, and if that happened, they'd basically be out of the profession and never listened to.

 

Possibly a different insane treatment modality should be tried - OTH (Other People Hopping).

Maybe trying OTH for 4 hours vs 23 hours and then giving the patient a questionnaire to record the effect of seeing other people hopping had on their symptoms.

Or maybe OTH vs OPL (Other People Leapfrogging)

Something's got to work dammit!!!

 

Is exposure-based CBT exercising nude?