Hormone Treatment Reduces Spider Fear

Posted on March 28, 2006

The BBC reports on an interesting new study that tried to reduce people's fears using cortisol. In this case the irrational fears involved wear speeches and spiders.

Cortisol impairs the retrieval of memories, so the principle the researchers were looking into was whether giving a dose of the hormone before people were exposed to a spider - or their own personal phobia trigger - would help.
The theory was tested on 40 people with social phobia and 20 with spider phobia.
Half of those studied were given cortisol and the rest a dummy version.
They were then either asked to give a speech in public, or exposed to a spider, depending on their phobia.
In both cases, subjects who received the hormone reported less stimulus-induced fear and anxiety.
Those who were frightened of spiders who were given the hormone treatment saw a progressive reduction of fear during each session over the two-week period of the study.

It sounds like cortisol could be helpful in fighting irrational fears. Scientists critical of the study said it doesn't take into account the "avoidance factor" involved with irrational fears. People often rework their lives to avoid the thing or situation that terrifies them.

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PSYCHOLOGY