specific phobias

In several research studies, the reactivation extinction paradigm did not effectively prevent the return of fear if administered without any intervention technique. Therefore, in this study, the authors hypothesized that playing music (high valence, low arousal) during the reconsolidation window may be a viable intervention technique for eliminating fear-related responses. A three-day auditory differential fear conditioning paradigm was used to establish fear conditioning. Participants were randomly assigned into three groups, i...

BACKGROUND: Dental phobia (DP) and injection phobia (IP) are common in children and adolescents and are considered some of the biggest obstacles to successful treatment in pediatric dentistry. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for anxiety and phobias. As the availability of CBT in dentistry is low, internet-based CBT (ICBT) was developed. Open trials have shown that ICBT is a promising intervention, but randomized trials are lacking. OBJECTIVE: This randomized controlled trial tests whether therapist-guided ICBT supported by a parent could reduce fear, allowing children and adolescents with DP or IP to receive dental treatment...

Memory persistence is a double edge sword. Persistence of adaptive memories is essential for survival and even determines who we are. Neurodegenerative conditions with significant memory loss such as Alzheimer's disease, testify how defects of memory persistence have severe and irreversible effects on personality, among other symptoms. Yet, maintenance of overly strong maladaptive memories underlies highly debilitating psychiatric conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, specific phobia, substance dependence and binge eating disorder...

Fear-related disorders (for example, phobias and anxiety) cause a substantial public health problem. To date, studies of the neural basis of fear have mostly focused on the amygdala. Here we identify a molecularly defined amygdala-independent tetra-synaptic pathway for olfaction-evoked innate fear and anxiety in male mice. This pathway starts with inputs from the olfactory bulb mitral and tufted cells to pyramidal neurons in the dorsal peduncular cortex that in turn connect to cholecystokinin-expressing (Cck+ ) neurons in the superior part of lateral parabrachial nucleus, which project to tachykinin 1-expressing (Tac1+ ) neurons in the parasubthalamic nucleus...

Patients with specific sensory needs may face barriers to receiving their immunizations. Therefore, a Low-Stimulus Clinic was created in Alberta. Modifications to regular clinic space included lower visual and auditory input, access to longer appointment times and private clinic spaces, development of pre-appointment comfort plans, and offering of in-vehicle immunization. Between April 2021 and May 2022, 90% (641/712) of booked patients were successfully immunized. The top reasons for accessing the clinic included autism spectrum disorder (229/712, 32%), and needle fear/phobia (195/712, 27%)...

OBJECTIVE: Few long-term studies have examined the life-time prevalence of comorbid psychiatric conditions in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We therefore studied the frequency of comorbid psychiatric disorders, and their relation to onset and prognosis, in patients with OCD who were followed for almost half a century. METHODS: During 1947-1953, 285 OCD patients were admitted as inpatients to a university hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. Among those, 251 (88%) accepted a structured comprehensive psychiatric examination in 1954-1956...

OBJECTIVE: To identify childhood psychopathological features that predict the onset of adolescent Bipolar (BD) versus Unipolar Major Depressive Disorder (UD) during adolescence. METHOD: We analyzed clinical data from 495 juveniles diagnosed with DSM-5 UD ( n  = 359), and BD ( n  = 136), using bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression model. RESULTS: BD subjects exhibited earlier onset of any psychiatric feature compared to UD...

Trypophobia is the condition in which individuals report a range of negative emotions when viewing clusters of small holes. Since the phenomenon was first described in the peer-reviewed literature a decade ago, 47 papers have appeared together with hundreds of news articles. There has also been much discussion on various internet forums, including medical and health-related websites. In the present article, we examine the degree to which the phenomenon is caused by a form of social learning, specifically, its ubiquitous social media presence...

Disgust can be acquired via evaluative conditioning; a process by which a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus; CS) comes to be evaluated as disgusting due to its pairing with an inherently disgusting stimulus (unconditioned stimulus; US). Research has shown that conditioned disgust responses are resistant to extinction which may have implications for disorders (i.e., contamination-based obsessive-compulsive disorder, specific phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder) in which heightened disgust has been implicated...

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The relation between fear and interpretation bias has been widely studied in children. However, much less is known about its content-specificity and how interpretation biases predict variance in avoidance. The current study examined different interpretation bias tasks, the role of priming and the ability of the interpretation bias tasks to predict spider fear-related avoidance behaviour. METHODS: 169 children with varying levels of spider fear performed a behavioural avoidance task, two versions of the Ambiguous Scenarios Task (AST; with and without priming), and a size and distance estimation task...

OBJECTIVES: Perinatal psychopathology can be damaging. This study examined the strength of the associations between risk factors and all perinatal mood and anxiety disorder symptoms while assessing the mediating effect of experiential avoidance. METHOD: Participants (N = 246) completed assessments during pregnancy (28-32 weeks) and the postpartum (6-8 weeks). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine associations between risk factors and latent factors: distress (composed of depression, generalized anxiety, irritability, and panic symptoms); fear (social anxiety, agoraphobia, specific phobia, and obsessive-compulsive); and bipolar (mania and obsessive-compulsive)...

[BACKGROUND]: Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) has been recognized as an effective treatment for specific phobias and has the potential to overcome the limitations of traditional exposure therapy. The pursuit of non-invasive brain stimulation provides a practical means of augmenting VRET. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive neuromodulation technique, stimulates the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), with the potential to enhance the effects of exposure therapy. Therefore, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine whether tDCS enhanced the effects of VRET in acrophobia...

BACKGROUND: The most known and commonly studied behavioral obstacle to dental care is dental anxiety. An obstacle that is less studied though no less problematic is excessive gag reflex, which can severely impede dental treatment. Another understudied and possibly related syndrome is emetophobia (a specific phobia of vomiting). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine possible comorbidity amongst self-reported emetophobia, dental anxiety, and excessive gagging in the dental office...

BACKGROUND: Anxiety-related disorders feature elevated negative affect (NA), and in some cases, diminished positive affect (PA). It remains unclear how well extant psychotherapies for anxiety-related disorders improve PA versus NA. METHODS: We systematically searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, PsychInfo, and Web of Science databases. Records included studies involving (1) patients with a principal or co-principal diagnosis of at least one anxiety-related disorder (i...

OBJECTIVE: Early trauma significantly affects the severity of panic disorder (PD) symptoms and suicidal ideation. However, few studies have explored the specific effects of different early trauma subtypes on PD. This study analyzed how childhood trauma subtypes, including general, physical, emotional, and sexual, influence panic and phobia levels and suicidal ideation in adults with PD and healthy controls (HCs). METHODS: In total, 455 adults with PD and 149 HCs participated in this study...

BACKGROUND: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are used to guide decision-making, especially regarding complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies that are unfamiliar to orthodox healthcare providers. This systematic review aimed to critically review and summarise CAM recommendations associated with anxiety management included in the existing CPGs. METHODS: Seven databases, websites of six international guidelines developing institutions, and the National Centre for Complementary and Integrative Health website were systematically searched...

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a crippling psychiatric disorder characterized by intense fear or anxiety in social situations and their avoidance. However, the underlying biology of SAD is unclear and better treatments are needed. Recently, the gut microbiota has emerged as a key regulator of both brain and behaviour, especially those related to social function. Moreover, increasing data supports a role for immune function and oxytocin signalling in social responses. To investigate whether the gut microbiota plays a causal role in modulating behaviours relevant to SAD, we transplanted the microbiota from SAD patients, which was identified by 16S rRNA sequencing to be of a differential composition compared to healthy controls, to mice...

Background: Anxiety disorders are commonly diagnosed and cause substantial functional impairment. A mixture of pharmacologic and psychosocial treatments currently exists, but these treatments are not always tolerable and effective. For patients with anxiety resistant to standard therapy, psychedelics may be a promising alternative. This review assesses the therapeutic benefits and safety of psychedelics in treating anxiety disorders. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, and CINAHL for clinical trials investigating psychedelics in patients with clinician-diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobia, separation anxiety disorder, selective mutism, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and anxiety attributable to another medical condition...

OBJECTIVES: Inhibitory control deficits are considered a key pathogenic factor in anxiety disorders. To assess inhibitory control, the antisaccade task is a well-established measure that assesses antisaccade performance via latencies and error rates. The present study follows three aims: (1) to investigate inhibitory control via antisaccade latencies and errors in an antisaccade task, and their associations with multiple measures of fear in patients with spider phobia (SP) versus healthy controls (HC), (2) to investigate the modifiability of antisaccade performance via a fear-specific antisaccade training in patients with SP and HC, and (3) to explore associations between putative training-induced changes in antisaccade performance in SPs and changes in diverse measures of fear...