Disorders

Biological Treatments

• Involves drug treatments.

• Generally first treatment offered as doctors diagnose these disorders.

• First acting.

• Used to manage symptoms.

• Now supplemented with cognitive therapy to deliver longer lasting effects.

Ost & Westling

• Design - independent measures and were randomly assigned to either relaxation or CBT.

• Procedure - Baseline levels taken using panic attack scale, agoraphobics cognitions questionnaire.

• Each patient given 12 weeks of 50 -60 min sessions.

• Findings - CBT - 74% panic-free, 89% at 1 year.

• Applied relaxation - 65% panic-free, 82% at 1 year.

McGrath - Successful treatment of a noise phobia.

• Used a fear thermometer to rate levels of fear from 1 - 10.

• When exposed to loud noises she would pair this with the relaxation (deep breathing and imagining at home).

• Through repeated pairings loud noise came to stand for relaxation, rather than fear.

• By the end of session 10 (the final one) her fear ratings were:

• 7/10 to 3/10 - balloons

• 9/10 to 3/10 - party poppers

• 8/10 to 5/10 - cap gun

McGrath - Successful treatment of a noise phobia.

• Aim - To compare cognitive behavioural therapy with applied relaxation as therapies for panic disorder.

• Methodology - Longitudinal study with patients undergoing therapy for panic disorder.

• Participants - 38 patients DSM diagnosed with panic disorder with or without agoraphobia.

• 26 female & 12 male - aged 32.6 years.

Evaluation

• Read through the study and think of evaluation points.

• Aim - to treat a 9 year girl with specific noise phobias using systematic desensitisation.

• Methodology - Case study of treatment.

• Participant - 9 year old girl with a phobia of loud noises, e.g. balloons, party poppers and fireworks. Below average IQ, and was not depressed or anxious.

• Procedure - Went to therapy and first constructed a hierarchy of noises.

• Taught breath and imagery to relax, would imagine being at home in bed.

Evaluation

• Read through the study and think of evaluation points.

Cognitive Explanation

Biological Explanation

Cognitive Treatments

Behavioural Explanation

• Less concerned with phobias and tends to focus on GAD (general anxiety disorders).

• Faulty cognition.

• DiNardo - found excessive worry (faulty thinking) was to GAD.

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) - used to alter cognitions and behaviours.

• Treats 'faulty' cognitions.

• Identify these and compare to reality - keep a diary of thoughts.

• Change their beliefs.

Behavioural Treatments

• Phobias could have evolutionary origins - pass on fear of snakes as it is adaptive.

• Backed by Ohman et al (1975) who showed that humans have a biological predisposition to develop a fear a snake (dangerous), compared to faces or houses.

Phobias

• Phobia develops through classical conditioning.

• Can be maintain through operant conditioning.

• Watson & Raynor - Little Albert and the fear of white rats, which was then generalised to white fluffy objects.

Leibowitz - Treatment of social phobia with phenelzine

• Behaviourists focus on the unlearning of behaviours.

• Classical conditioning is used - two stimuli paired together - conditioned response no fear.

• Systematic desensitisation.

• Design - independent measures

• Phenelzine and matching placebo.

• Atenolo and matching placebo.

• Procedure - patients assessed at the beginning and given gradually increasing doses.

• Results - at 8 weeks there was a significant effect found from the use of phenelzine.

• See if you can list the ten most commonly reported phobias in the UK.

• Aim - to see if the drug phenelzine can help treat patients with social phobia.

• Methodology - Controlled experiment

• 3 conditions (phenelzine, placebo & atentolo) and treated over 8 weeks.

• Assessed social phobia using Hamilton rating scale for anxiety and the Leibowitz social phobia scale.

• Participants - 80 (18 - 50 years) meeting DSM criteria for social phobia.

Evaluation

• Read through the study and think of evaluation points.

Phobia

• A type of anxiety disorder - a continuous feeling of fear and anxiety which is disabling and can impose on daily functioning.

• A definite, persistent fear of a particular object or situation.

• This stimulus will provoke an immediate response, which may be similar to a panic attack.

Phobia

• This includes the physical symptoms of shortness of breath and palpitations and feelings of intense fear and terror leading to a loss of control.

• The person is also aware that these feelings are irrational.

Task

Aim

• Complete questions.

• To understand the behavioural, cognitive and biological explanations and treatments for phobias.

Task

• Choose a treatment and create a poster with the supporting study and an evaluation of this.

Task

• Complete the questions in the disorders worksheet.

Objectives

Recap Quiz

• To define phobias.

• Define the behavioural, biological and cognitive explanations and treatments of phobias.

• Describe and evaluate studies to support these approaches.

Treatments of phobias

• Different approaches have different strategies for treating phobias.

• Is treatment a cure for a mental illness or the management of symptoms to enable the individual to live a normal life?

Phobias