from Vervliet reading

Question 1

general points

Answer 1

• the current challenge is not to achieve fear reduction, but rather to maintain it over time. Relapse prevention has become the major focus of fear extinction research, as it is for addiction and depression research
• Return of fear puts serious limitations on the long-term outcome of (exposure-based) anxiety treatments. An important research target is to reveal the conditions that can trigger return of fear.
• posttreatment fear is higher when assessments occur in a context different from the treatment context.
• Contexts can also include the internal state (i.e., arousal) of an individual. A study with 43 spider- fearful individuals showed that incongruent internal states during treatment and follow-up can produce a return of fear
• Reduction of the fear response may simply reflect the destruction of the underlying CS-US association
• The destruction of the CS-US association provides the most favourable outcome, with no threat of return of fear (erasure)