Phobia-Phobic Disorders
A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are present for more than six months.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW166
Diagnosis: Phobia-Phobic Disorders
US Patients: 8.7%-18.1% suffer-may not be patients;
World Patients: Specific-6-8% in Western world; 2-4% Asia, Africa & Latin America; Social-7% US; 0.5-2.5% elsewhere; agoraphobia-1.7%
Sex Ratio: M;W2, Phobias are the most common mental illness-challenge among women.
Age Onset: Ages 10-17; During or after the event lasting 6-months to permanently; 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias.
Brain Area: Insula involved with the autonomic functions; anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal & medial prefrontal cortexes
Symptoms: an anxiety disorder with persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias can be specific, social or agoraphobia-places
Progression: Range from mild concern to panic attacks-lose control over themselves physically.
Causes: Fear conditioning; traumatizing event; observing others who fear; the basolateral amygdala keeps a memory with the hippocampus
Medications: Social phobias-antidepressants, benzodiazepines or beta blockers//EMDR-Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing
Therapies: Specific phobias (such as, spiders, snakes, heights)use-exposure therapy; social phobias-systematic desensitization, relaxation
Youtube Video: Phobias? Why Do We Have Them?
Amazon or Library Book: The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
Click the book to link or order from Amazon.
Support Group: Facebook-phobiassupportgroup; 609-713-2963 (Phobia Anxiety Support Group)
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Neuromodulation of heart rate and heart rate variability in a randomized controlled trial of tDCS-augmented in vivo exposure for specific fearsby Adam R Cobb on February 4, 2025
This study evaluated the prediction that tDCS-augmented in vivo exposure (IVE) for specific fears would result in durable changes in heart rate (BPM) and heart-rate variability (HRV) during and just after exposure to feared targets. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, participants with contamination- and animal phobia (N = 49) were randomized to active tDCS (1.7 mA, 20 min; n = 27), or sham tDCS (1.7 mA, 30 s; n = 22), followed by a single session of 30 min of IVE. Active tDCS targeted...
- Machine learning prediction of anxiety symptoms in social anxiety disorder: utilizing multimodal data from virtual reality sessionsby Jin-Hyun Park on February 3, 2025
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that a ML algorithm using integrated multimodal data can predict upper tertile anxiety symptoms in patients with SAD with higher performance than acoustic or physiological data obtained during a VR session. The results of this study can be used as evidence for personalized VR sessions and to demonstrate the strength of the clinical use of multimodal data.
- Functional analysis of school refusal: An exploratory study in the Indian contextby Arun Singh Yadav on February 3, 2025
CONCLUSIONS: School refusal is a complex multifactorial phenomenon with both individual and psychosocial contributing factors. Understanding the phenomenon from a functional perspective helps in devising an individualized treatment plan that may lead to better outcomes.
- Long-term exposure therapy outcome in phobia and the link with behavioral and neural indices of extinction learningby Jette H de Vos on January 31, 2025
Extinction learning is regarded as a core mechanism underlying exposure therapy. Under this assumption, studies have looked at the predictive value of the extinction learning paradigm for exposure therapy outcomes. However, predicting factors of long-term exposure therapy success have not been established. Participants with a specific phobia (SP) for spiders were included in a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomly assigned to receive exposure therapy (n = 25, 24...