Thought stop

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The thought stop is a behavior therapy technique developed in the 1950s for interrupting repetitive, stressful e.g. B. dysfunctional ( brooding ,) thoughts.

The undesired thought or train of thought is interrupted first by the therapist, later by the patient himself, with a loudly articulated "stop". In addition to the interruption of the train of thought, the shock reaction caused by the loud exclamation acts as a direct punishment and, with increasing practice, should lead to a decreasing probability of undesired thoughts in the sense of an initially open and later covert conditioning .

The technique should only be performed after thorough behavioral and problem analysis to ensure the patient understands and can use the technique, and to identify a particularly serious problem behavior to work on.

method

The patients first report in detail the unwanted thought or train of thought. The therapist now shouts “Stop!”. This should come unexpectedly for the patient and lead to a startle reaction . The patient then typically reports that the train of thought was interrupted by the therapist's behavior. This effect is discussed as a model.

In the following, the patient is enabled to gradually interrupt the thought himself. At first he lets his thoughts run free without reporting them, but reports a previously agreed hand signal if the undesired thought or train of thought occurs. The therapist interrupts him again with a loud "Stop!" After practicing this procedure several times, the patient is asked to interrupt the train of thought with a self-articulated loud "Stop!" In the following step, the aim is to interrupt the undesired trains of thought first in the therapy session and later in everyday life by saying “stop!” In your mind (not aloud).

literature

  • Martin Hautzinger , Michael Linden : behavior therapy manual. 6., completely revised and exp. Ed., Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-75739-9 .
  • P. Parenteau, Y. Lamontagne: The thought-stopping technique: a treatment for different types of ruminations? In: Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie. Volume 26, Number 3, April 1981, ISSN  0706-7437 , pp. 192-195, PMID 7016296 : "Finally, if good results are not obtained after a maximum of six sessions of therapy, other forms of treatment should be considered."
  • Tyron, GS: A review and critique of thought stopping research. In: J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 1979 Sept; 10 (3): 189-192. doi : 10.1016 / j.physletb.2003.10.071 : "Although thought stopping enjoys widespread clinical use, its effectiveness has yet to be conclusively demonstrated."