title: A preliminary inquiry into manual muscle testing response in phobic and control subjects exposed to threatening stimuli.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine phobic and nonphobic subject response to a provocative threat stimulus and to determine variables that confound the response.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized blind examiner test-retest of randomized phobic and control subjects with qualitative, semistructured, informal postint-ervention interview.
  
  
  METHODS
  Private chiropractic clinic.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirteen phobic individuals, as determined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition-Revised (DSM-III-R), and 14 control volunteer subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Manual muscle testing was performed while each subject viewed a threat stimulus (i.e., a cue word on a printed card). The results were recorded as "weak" or "strong."
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis of data demonstrates poor inter- (K = -0.19) and intraexaminer reliability (K = -0.14(-) +0.29) the test for independence for valid muscle testing was strong for both examiners (p = .462, p = 1.00). When confounding variables were corrected for, the validity of muscle testing increased to 91%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This preliminary inquiry demonstrates the need for musculoskeletal, attentional and presensitized subject variables to be controlled to ascertain if muscle testing can be reliably used as a tool to identify emotional arousal.
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Peterson
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D018953:Kinesiology, Applied / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015588:Observer Variation; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results