Lightning Process
This project seeks to define and describe the Lightning Process® (a commercially-available complementary intervention) compared to specialist medical care for paediatric CFS/ME, with a view to identifying potential mechanisms of action, and seek funding for a full-scale trial.
Research Team: Dr Emma Anderson, Dr Lucy Beasant, Dr Rebecca Barnes, Dr Nicola Mills, Professor Esther Crawley
The Lightning Process®(LP) is a commercially-available complementary intervention based on Neurolinguistic Programming, Life coaching and Osteopathy. The SMILE trial1,2,3 demonstrated that adolescents with CFS/ME were more likely to improve with LPplus specialist medical care (SMC) compared to SMC alone. We need greater understanding of the LP and how it may benefit patients, looking for potential mechanisms of action that may improve SMC. The aims of this project are to:
- Define LP in the context of established/evidence-based therapies (e.g. CBT/behavioural therapies)
- Analyse practitioner-patient interactions within LP sessions, seeking distinctiveness from SMC sessions (using SMILE Trial recordings)
- Apply for a full-scale trial of LP vs CBT for paediatric CFS/ME
This work is funded by the Linbury Trust.
Publications
- Anderson, E, Loades M, Starbuck J, Parker P, Finch F, Barnes R, Beasant L, and Crawley E. "CBT repackaged or a novel treatment? The Lightning Process compared with UK specialist medical care for paediatric Chronic Fatigue Syndrome." Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior (2021): 1-20.
Planned publication (currently under review):
- Conversation Analysis examining in detail what happens within Lightning Process group sessions
The SMILE Trial forms the basis from which this work builds: references below:
- Crawley E, Mills N, Beasant L, et al. The feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of specialist medical care and the Lightning Process in children with chronic fatigue syndrome: feasibility randomized controlled trial (SMILE study). Trials [Electronic Resource];14:415.
- Crawley E, Mills N, Hollingworth W, et al. Comparing specialist medical care with specialist medical care plus the Lightning Process for chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (SMILE Trial). Trials [Electronic Resource];14:444.
- Crawley EM, Gaunt DM, Garfield K, et al. Clinical and cost-effectiveness of the Lightning Process in addition to specialist medical care for paediatric chronic fatigue syndrome: randomised controlled trial. Archives of Disease in Childhood;103(2):155-64.
