Disorders - Treatments Of Phobias Flashcards
What was the biological study on treatment of phobias?
Leibowitz
What is the behavioural study on the successful treatment of phobias?
McGrath
What was the aim of Leibowitz’s study?
To see if the drug phenelzine can help treat patients with social phobia.
What was the method of Leibowitz’s study?
A controlled experiment where patients were allocated to one of three conditions and treated over 8 weeks. They were assessed for social phobia on several tests such as Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety and the Liebowitz Social Phobia Scale. The latter had common manifestations of social phobia and patients rated 1-4 for the fear produced and 1-4 for the steps taken to avoid the phobic situation.
Who were the participants in Liebowitz’s study?
80 patients aged 18-50 years meeting DSM criteria for social phobia. They were medically healthy and had no received phenelzine for at least 2 weeks before the trial. Each was assessed to see that there were no other disorders and signed consent forms before the research.
What was the design of Leibowitz’s study?
An independent design with patients being allocated randomly to one of four groups. One group was treated with phenelzine, and one control group was given a matching placebo. A second treatment group was given atenolol and another placebo group was given a matching placebo.
What was the procedure of Leibowitz’s study?
Patients were assessed at the beginning, and then given their drug or placebo, with gradual increases in dosage of phenelzine or atenolol in the treatment groups. Each patients as then reassessed using the rating scales. Independent evaluators were used to carry out clinical assessments in a double blind situation.
What were the findings of Leibowitz’s study?
After 8 weeks significant differences were noted for the phenelzine groups, with better scores on the tests for anxiety compared with the placebo groups. There was no significant difference between the patients taking atenolol and the placebo.
What were the conclusions of Leibowitz’s study?
Phenelzine but not atenolol is effective in treating social phobia after 8 weeks of treatment.
What was the aim of McGrath’s study?
To treat a girl with specific noise phobias using systematic desensitisation
What was the method of McGrath’s study?
A case study that details the treatment of a noise phobia in one girl
Who was the participant in McGrath’s study?
Lucy, a 9-year-old girl who had a fear of sudden loud noises. These included balloons, party poppers, guns, cars backfiring and fireworks. She had a lower than average IQ, and was not depressed, anxious or fearful (tested with psychometric tests), so only had one specific phobia.
What was the design in McGrath’s study?
A single-participant design.
What was the procedure in McGrath’s study?
Lucy was brought to the therapy session and taught breathing and imagery to relax, and was told to imagine herself at home on her bed with her toys. She also had a hypothetical ‘fear thermometer’ to rate her level of fear from 1 to 10. She would pair the stimulus of the loud noise with relaxation etc. This would lead her to feel calm and associate the noise with feeling calm and after 4 sessions she had learnt to feel calm when the noise was presented. She did not need to imagine herself at home with her toys anymore.
What were the findings of McGrath’s study?
By the end of the fourth session, Lucy was able to signal a balloon to be burst 10 meters away, with only mild anxiety. In the fifth session Lucy allowed a small balloon to be burst in the consulting room, at the end she was able to pop the balloons herself. Party poppers were then introduced over the next three sessions and went from not allowing them into the consulting room to being able to pop one if the therapist held it. Cap guns were then introduced and were used outside but Lucy was quickly able to agree to one being fired in the consulting room. By Lucy’s tenth and final session, her fear thermometer scores had gone from 7/10 to 3/10 for balloons popping and 9/10 to 3/10 for party poppers; the cap gun had gone from 8/10 to 5/10.
