Specific phobias

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders, but the subcategory of specific phobias has not been well studied. Phobias involve both fear and avoidance. For people who have specific phobias, avoidance can reduce the constancy and severity of distress and impairment. However, these phobias are important because of their early onset and strong persistence over time. Studies indicate that the lifetime prevalence of specific phobias around the world ranges from 3% to 15%, with fears and phobias concerning heights and animals being the most common. The developmental course of phobias, which progress from fear to avoidance and then to diagnosis, suggests the possibility that interrupting the course of phobias could reduce their prevalence. Although specific phobias often begin in childhood, their incidence peaks during midlife and old age. Phobias persist for several years or even decades in 10-30% of cases, and are strongly predictive of onset of other anxiety, mood, and substance-use disorders. Their high comorbidity with other mental disorders, especially after onset of the phobia, suggests that early treatment of phobias could also alter the risk of other disorders. Exposure therapy remains the treatment of choice, although this approach might be less effective in the long term than previously believed. This Review discusses the literature regarding the prevalence, incidence, course, risk factors, and treatment of specific phobias, and presents epidemiological data from several population-based surveys.

Emotional Reaction to Fear- and Disgust-Evoking Snakes: Sensitivity and Propensity in Snake-Fearful Respondents

“…Intensive fear of snakes has survived until today as for a majority of people, the snake is still among the most frightening animals (Davey, 1994;Polák et al, 2019b) that may trigger phobic fear in as many as 2-3% of population (Klorman et al, 1974;Klieger, 1987;Polák et al, 2016), which accounts for one of the most prevalent specific phobias (Eaton et al, 2018; cf average prevalence of any animal phobia across the world is estimated to 3.8%, Wardenaar et al, 2017). Even higher prevalence of snake phobia, despite local low abundance of snakes, was reported on a Swedish (5.5%, Fredrikson et al, 1996) or Hungarian sample (4.2%, Zsido, 2017 and3.3%, Zsido et al, 2018).…”

Augmenting Exposure Therapy: Mobile Augmented Reality for Specific Phobia

“…Specific phobia is a highly prevalent mental illness for which exposure therapy is the first-choice treatment (Baus and Bouchard, 2014;Böhnlein et al, 2020). Specific phobia refers to a persistent unreasonable fear concerning a specific object or situation, which is accompanied by avoidance of the object or situation and results in clinically significant distress or impairment (Eaton et al, 2018). The review of Eaton et al (2018) shows that specific phobia has a median lifetime prevalence of 7.2%, although large regional differences occur, and that fear of animals and heights are the most common subtypes.…”

“…Specific phobia refers to a persistent unreasonable fear concerning a specific object or situation, which is accompanied by avoidance of the object or situation and results in clinically significant distress or impairment (Eaton et al, 2018). The review of Eaton et al (2018) shows that specific phobia has a median lifetime prevalence of 7.2%, although large regional differences occur, and that fear of animals and heights are the most common subtypes. During exposure therapy, the client is confronted with stimuli and situations that elicit fear.…”

Scary and nasty beasts: Self‐reported fear and disgust of common phobic animals

“…Although once developed as adaptive responses in threatening situations, fear and disgust of animals may have significant clinical implications when they get out of control. Specific animal phobias are globally the most frequent mental illness (Steel et al, 2014) with a lifetime prevalence 3.3-5.7% (Eaton, Bienvenu, & Miloyan, 2018) and considerable psychological, social, and economic burdens (Greenberg et al, 1999).…”