Research on Posttreatment Return of Claustrophobic Fear, Arousal, and Avoidance Using Mock Diagnostic Imaging

• Published in: Behavior modification Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 379 - 394
• Main Authors: Wood, Barry S., Mcglynn, F. Dudley
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2000; Sage; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adult; Arousal; Avoidance Learning; Behavior modification; Behavior therapy. Cognitive therapy; Biological and medical sciences; College Students; Fear; Fear & phobias; Fear - psychology; Female; Heart Rate; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - instrumentation; Male; Medical sciences; Phobic Disorders - physiopathology; Phobic Disorders - psychology; Predictor Variables; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Recurrence; Reinforcement (Psychology); Resistance (Psychology); Treatments; Human; Heart rate; Phobia; Claustrophobia; Treatment; Anxiety disorder; Medical imagery; Exposure; Behavior therapy; Hemodynamics; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging
• ISSN: 0145-4455; 1552-4167
• DOI: 10.1177/0145445500243005

Fear sometimes returns after attenuation via exposure. Return of fear is poorly understood due to conflicting results from diverse experiments. This article reports on two experiments in which claustrophobic fear during mock diagnostic imagingwas attenuated and allowed to return so the experiments could be evaluated and return of fear studied. Attentional focus versus distraction during exposure was a between-subjects independent variable. Attempts were made to predict return of fear, return of heart-rate responsivity, and behavioral avoidance using levels of fear and heart-rate during initial mock diagnostic imaging as predictor variables. One third of participants displayed return of fear, heart-rate response, or avoidance 1 week after fear reduction. Heart-rate response during initial mock imaging predicted posttreatment return-of-fear classification; level of fear during initial imaging did not. Neither initial heart rate nor initial fear predicted return of heartrate reactivity or avoidance. The experiments are offered as models for programmatic research.