We carried some research out with Dr Joerg Beyer, a GP from Liverpool to find out if NLP helps diabetes sufferers. We looked into the effect that training GPs and Practice Nurses in NLP would have on Diabetes patients’ health. Results indicate that training in specific NLP tools and techniques has a beneficial effect.
I was initially approach by Dr Beyer who had a hypothesis based on existing research that NLP tools and techniques could be very valuable to health professionals and he thought he had identified a way to quantify the effect by measuring the Glycosylated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) of a group of diabetic patients both before and after their GPs and Nurses had undergone some specifically designed NLP training .
According to Dr Beyer: “Glycosylated Haemogobin (HbA1c) is a marker of diabetic control in the past 6 – 8 weeks. Research (UKPDS 35) showed a risk reduction in developing strokes, heart attacks, being amputated, small vessel disease and a reduction of all cause mortality of 21% for every 1% reduction in the HbA1c.
A change in lifestyle can significantly affect the HbA1c level and Health Practitioners have an opportunity to influence the behaviour of their patients.
Joerg’s hypothesis was that using NLP during consultations will make clinicians more effective at persuading patients to make lifestyle changes and adhere to treatment. He thought HbA1cs might be different before and after NLP due to review and change in medication regardless of NLP but the difference after NLP might be greater.
We carried out the Training in November and December 2007 in Liverpool with a mix of GPs and Specialist Nurses.
Joerg then collated the results for a year before and a year after the training and applied statistical analysis to the results.
Although the sample group was small (94 patients) the results showed
that there is a 95% chance that NLP will lead to a statistically and medically significant improvement; although it is difficult to know whether Dr Beyer’s practice nurse always used it and it was not possible to control for other factors. On the other hand, all patients were seen by the same practice nurse before and after she attended an NLP course and there were no other changes in treatment algorithms.
We are both very excited by these results and are looking at how to develop further studies. Joerg is currently writing a paper on this to the British Medical Journal and the British Journal of General Practitioners and we are hoping that they publish it.
If you would like to read his results in more detail and see how NLP helps diabetes sufferers they are included in this post.
If you would like to see how NLP could help you please contact us.