Specific Phobia Definition There are seven separ

1.Marked and persistent fear of clearly circumscribed objects or situations, like spiders or riding in elevators;

2.Immediate anxiety reaction upon exposure to the stimulus;

3.Recognition by adolescents and adults that their fear is excessive or unreasonable;

4.The phobic stimulus is generally avoided or endured with dread;

5.That the fear or avoidance interferes with the individual's functioning or the individual is markedly distressed about the phobia;

6.Persistence for at least six months for those under 18; and,

7.The symptoms are not better accounted for by another disorder, such as PTSD.

There are several subtypes of Specific Phobia, including the Animal Type, Natural Environment Type, BloodInjectionInjury Type, Situation Type, and Other Type. For example, the Animal Type might include fear of dogs or spiders. The Animal Type often has a childhood onset. On the other hand, the Situational Type has two ageatonset peaks, one in childhood and on in the mid20s. Situational phobias include such things as fear of bridges, elevators, driving, or enclosed places.

Specific Phobias often coexist with other anxiety disorders, with a particularly frequent cooccurrence between Specific Phobias and Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia. However, they must be distinguished from those other disorders. For example, Specific Ph

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ogram at the end of treatment emphasizing selfexposure. Results indicated that all subjects were significantly improved at posttreatment and the effects were maintained at the oneyear followup. Although five sessions produced initially improved results, there was no difference at followup. The authors concluded that one session treatment was sufficient when a maintenance program of selfexposure is provided. In a much shorterterm approach, Ost (1996) reported on onesession group treatment of spider phobia. In this study, 42 patients with spider phobia were randomly assigned to two group treatment conditions. One condition had groups with only three to four patients, while the second condition had groups with seven to eight patients. Each group received one threehour session which consisted of both exposure and modeling. Both groups showed significant improvement, although there was a trend for the smaller groups to show greater improvement. For example, at followup, 95 percent of the small group patients were clinically significantly improved, while only 75 percent of the larger group patients were in that category. In contrast to many of the above studies, a onesession treatment process using exposure or sel
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