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Completely new therapy against spider anxiety
Are you one of those people who are afraid of spiders? Do not you dare to touch the little creepy-crawlies and do you already disgust your sight? Then there is reason to rejoice: Dutch scientists discovered a method that could help people in the shortest possible time to fear spiders. The results of their study, the researchers published in the journal "Biological Psychiatry".
Typical phobia behavioral therapies require many sessions to achieve the desired effect. A recent Dutch study has developed a treatment that allows people to overcome their fears of spiders within two minutes. However, the biggest problem for people with spider phobia is that the proximity of a tarantula must be sought to heal.
Spider phobia could potentially be treated much faster in the future. (Image: pict rider / fotolia.com) Reinforcement intensifies or weakens fears
A team of scientists from the University of Amsterdam conducted an experiment on the idea of reconsolidation. Through this process memories can be amplified or weakened as they are activated. Earlier research had shown that stored fears could be forgotten. In order to reach this state, however, a drug must be used if the memory has been activated by our memory. The Dutch researchers confronted a total of 45 people who suffered from spider phobia with a true tarantula. Each of the subjects should endure the vicinity of the spider for a total of two minutes. Thereafter, the subject's physicians gave a dose of the beta-blocker propranolol or a placebo. The drug is usually used to treat high blood pressure and heart disease.
Two minutes of treatment successful in investigations
In the subjects who had received propranolol, the avoidance behavior towards spiders decreased noticeably in the next half year. In addition, it was also possible for the individuals to slowly move on to arachnids. In other words, the two-minute treatment actually made people less afraid of spiders than before. During the investigations, it became clear for the first time that propranolol, in conjunction with the reactivation of certain memory stores, could help convert so-called avoidance behavior into a behavior in which those dare to approach a real spider, said the study's researcher and lead author Merel Kindt.
Treatment could cure other severe phobias in the future
Although more research is needed, the same technique could be used in the future for patients with anxiety disorders and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), the researchers added. Such individuals today usually need numerous sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy or have to take medicines on a daily basis. Through the treatment it can be observed that the symptoms are gradually (but often only temporarily) reduced, explained the researcher Prof. Kindt. The proposed revolutionary form of treatment requires only a single and a short intervention. The process could then lead to a sudden and permanent loss of anxiety, said the doctor in a statement. Much more research is needed to use the treatment for other more severe phobias. The results should be checked and extended by additional variables. The treatment could also be a strategy for accelerating the treatment of anxiety disorders, Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry. (As)