A preliminary inquiry into manual muscle testing response in phobic and control subjects exposed to threatening stimuli.
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.
Peterson
K B
KB
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