Treatment of acrophobia with contact desensitization

Ritter, Brunhilde

doi:10.1016/0005-7967(69)90047-3

Cited by 73 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Goethe (1771) was probably the first to report on repeated exposure to height as a valuable therapy of acrophobia which he experienced on top of the Strassburger Munster. This later was developed into a behavioral therapy concept of self-directed contact desensitization (Ritter, 1969;Baker et al, 1973) or implosion therapy (flooding) after Marks & Gelder (1967). It is obvious from our experiments that these therapies are concerned with the psychiatric aspects of acrophobia, but do not affect physiological height vertigo as described above.…”

Section: Physiological Height Vertigo Versus Acrophobiamentioning

confidence: 92%

The Mechanism of Physiological Height Vertigo: I. Theoretical Approach and Psychophysics

Brandt

Arnold

Bles

et al. 1980

Acta Oto-Laryngologica

112

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A theory is presented supporting a geometrical explanation of physiological height vertigo as a 'distance vertigo' created by visual destabilization of posture when the distance between the observer and visible stationary contrasts becomes critically large. Though height vertigo is generally regarded as a psychopathological process, we hypothesize that it might instead result from an intersensory mismatch when visual information is at variance with vestibular and proprioceptive inputs. Psychophysical experiments confirming the hypothesis revealed that: 1) height vertigo is clearly related to body position, being the greatest in the upright stance; 2) it is the eye-object distance rather than the direction of gaze which is critical; 3) there is a saturation of height vertigo magnitude. Subjective vertigo increases with increasing altitude only below 20 metres. Physiological 'distance vertigo' must be distinguished from psychological 'acrophobia'. Its postural consequences may be ameliorated by strategies gleaned from knowledge of its mechanism such as providing nearby stationary contrasts in the peripheral visual field. A( / ( I O/o/

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Section: Physiological Height Vertigo Versus Acrophobiamentioning

confidence: 92%

The Mechanism of Physiological Height Vertigo: I. Theoretical Approach and Psychophysics

Brandt

Arnold

Bles

et al. 1980

Acta Oto-Laryngologica

112

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“…Similarly, a recent study reviewing the effects of dental fear treatments (Gordon et al, 2013) concluded that short CBT-interventions up to five sessions were effective both short-term as well as at follow-up (FU) assessment, regardless of their respective content elements (i.e., exposure with relaxation, cognitive restructuring, cognitive and behavioral approaches combined), format (e.g., individual or group), intensity (e.g., massed, graduated), or frequency (e.g., one session, five consecutive sessions). Efficacy of group treatments that reduce the therapist-patient ratio has been repeatedly demonstrated in SPs, for example, in acrophobia (Ritter, 1969; Pendleton and Higgins, 1983), flying phobia (Howard et al, 1983), or DP (e.g., Ning and Liddell, 1991; Moore et al, 2002). However, treatment in these trials was applied in a multi-session format and the group size was small with at the most nine participants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Large Group Exposure Treatment: A Feasibility Study of Exposure Combined with Diaphragmatic Breathing in Highly Dental Fearful Individuals

et al. 2017

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A large-group one session treatment (LG-OST) combining exposure and diaphragmatic breathing as a bodily coping element was carried out to investigate its feasibility and effectiveness in a sample of 43 highly dental fearful individuals treated simultaneously. We assessed subjective dental fear, dysfunctional dental-related beliefs, and perceived control pre- and post-intervention and at four-month follow-up. Participants additionally performed a behavioural approach test (BAT) pre- and post-intervention. During the applied exposure exercises, four participants (9.3%) discontinued the program all reporting too high levels of distress. Regarding subjective dental fear and dysfunctional dental related beliefs post treatment effects, LG-OST showed medium to large effect sizes, ranging from Cohen’s d = 0.51 to d = 0.84 in the Intention-to-Treat analysis. Subjective dental fear improved clinically significantly in about one fourth (25.6%) of therapy completers. All post-treatment effects remained stable over time. Concerning the behavioral fear dimension, we observed a strong ceiling effect. Already at pre-assessment, participants accomplished more than six out of seven BAT-steps. Thus, behavioral approach did not increase significantly following treatment. Overall, the LG-OST protocol proved feasible and efficient. Compared to other one-session individual and multi-session group treatments the observed LG-OST effects were smaller. However, if LG-OST could match the efficacy of highly intensive short treatments delivered in an individual setting in the future, for example, by applying a wider array of exposure exercises, it could be a very useful treatment option as an intermediate step within a stepped care approach.

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“…Im Vergleich zu anderen Angststörungen wurden für spezifische Phobien schon früh Behandlungen in Therapieerfolgsstudien evaluiert. So beschrieb Ritter bereits 1969 die Wirksamkeit einer Desensibilisierung in vivo bei Höhenphobie [Ritter, 1969]. Auch heute werden zur Behandlung spezifischer Phobien hauptsächlich konfrontative Methoden angewendet, wobei häufig weitere therapeutische Techniken hinzugezogen werden [zusammenfassend siehe Öst, 1996a].…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Effektivität psychologischer Therapien von spezifischer Phobie und Zwangsstörung: Meta-Analysen auf Störungsebene

Ruhmland¹,

Margraf²

2001

Verhaltenstherapie

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Efficacy of Psychological Treatments for Specific Phobia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder The present study compares the efficacy of 8 different psychological treatments for specific phobia, or 5 for obsessive-compulsive disorder, respectively, in a meta-analysis of 32 studies that included 80 treatment interventions. Pre-post effect sizes were calculated for 5 clinical outcome variables: main symptoms, general anxiety, depression, impairment and general psychopathology. Long-term outcome has been investigated up to 2 years past interventions. For specific phobia, most psychological interventions namely desensitization, exposure, applied relaxation, applied tension and cognitive therapy, yielded high effect sizes (ES) between 1.42 and 2.06 for main symptoms. Long-term follow-ups have been investigated for exposure and applied relaxation and tension for which treatment gains were stable up to 1 year past interventions. In part, the analyzed treatments have proven their efficacy only for a subgroup of specific phobias: desensitization has been investigated mainly in the treatment of dental phobia, applied tension in the treatment of blood- and injection phobia. In the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, cognitive-behavioral therapy yielded the highest ES for main symptoms (ES = 1.84). The ES for exposure was lower (ES = 1.44), but did not differ statistically from the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Treatment gains for both were maintained up to 2 years past interventions.

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Treatment of acrophobia with contact desensitization

Cited by 73 publications

References 3 publications

The Mechanism of Physiological Height Vertigo: I. Theoretical Approach and Psychophysics

The Mechanism of Physiological Height Vertigo: I. Theoretical Approach and Psychophysics

Large Group Exposure Treatment: A Feasibility Study of Exposure Combined with Diaphragmatic Breathing in Highly Dental Fearful Individuals

Effektivität psychologischer Therapien von spezifischer Phobie und Zwangsstörung: Meta-Analysen auf Störungsebene

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