Active clinical trials for "Phobic Disorders"

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of St. John's Wort as compared to placebo (an inactive substance) in the treatment of outpatients with social phobia.

Social phobia is a very common and debilitating disorder, with public speaking anxiety being the most common fear. Psychologists have found that treating patients for their fear of public speaking, through cognitive-behavioral treatment (talk-based therapy) or exposure treatment (where participants participate in actual public speaking sessions), not only helps patients overcome this fear but also helps them overcome their more general social fears. However, little is known about how this change occurs during therapy. This study tries to identify the factors that contribute most to successful therapy. Patients are assigned randomly (like tossing a coin) to 1 of 3 groups. Group 1 will receive cognitive-behavioral treatment and Group 2 will receive exposure treatment. Group 3 will not receive treatment. Study leaders will monitor patient response to treatment through behavioral tests and assessments. An individual may be eligible for this study if he/she: Has social phobia with public speaking anxiety.

This study evaluates whether a scent applied during exposure therapy and during subsequent sleep will increase the durability of treatment effects for individuals with fear of spiders, contamination, and enclosed spaces.

This study examines the impact of safety behaviors (i.e., unnecessary protective actions) on outcomes of exposure therapy for spider phobia. Researchers will compare exposure therapy with (a) no safety behaviors, (b) safety behaviors faded toward the end of treatment, and (c) unfaded safety behaviors.

Whether used alone or in combination with other approaches, strategies such as cognitive restructuring (CR) and exposure are well-established treatments for anxiety. CR involves identifying and challenging thoughts, beliefs, or assumptions that maintain anxiety, and exposure involves confronting feared situations, typically in a gradual manner. Many theories have been proposed to explain why exposure is effective. One theory posits that corrective learning occurs only when expectations about the outcome of a situation are violated. Therefore, exposure is thought to be effective when the discrepancy between the expected and actual outcome is maximized. One group of researches has suggested that engaging in CR prior to exposure will prematurely reduce the discrepancy between expectancy and outcome, resulting in less inhibitory learning. As such, they recommend that CR only be conducted after exposure in order to consolidate learning about expectancy violation. This recommendation has not been experimentally studied and is in contrast to what is typically practiced clinically. CR is often introduced in therapy prior to exposure. The present study will determine whether conducting CR before exposure results in (1) greater initial reductions in expectation following CR before exposure, (2) less expectancy violation, and (3) poorer treatment gains at posttreatment and 1-month followup. Eighty-two participants with claustrophobia will be randomly assigned to receive either CR before exposure or CR after exposure. The intervention will be conducted in a single session.

We are doing this study to find out how well cognitive behavioural therapy for social phobia works in people with bipolar disorder, who also have social phobia.

This study tests whether exposure therapy for fear of snakes or spiders is enhanced by the addition of a brief fear retrieval trial prior to treatment, and the use of compound extinction during treatment. The goal of the study is to determine whether these behavioral techniques enhance the efficacy of exposure therapy, one of the most empirically supported treatments for anxiety disorders.

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a computer-aided self-help treatment for flying phobia with or without support by the therapist, compared to a waiting list control group. Secondary objectives: a) to explore two ways of delivering NO-FEAR Airlines, with or without therapist guidance and b) to study the patients' acceptability through expectations, preferences and satisfaction towards the online program. In this work, we present the study design. The principal hypothesis is that the two intervention groups will improve significantly compared to the waiting list control group.

The current study aims at comparing the efficacy of exposure in vivo and exposure via virtual reality for social anxiety disorder. 70 patients with social anxiety disorder will be randomized to either one of the active conditions or to a waiting-list condition. Participants on the waiting-list will be offered either exposure in vivo of in virtual reality after a waiting period of five weeks. Levels of psychopathology will be assessed at pre- and post-treatment as well as three and 12 months after treatment.

This study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of SPD503 in subjects aged 6-17 years with GAD, SAD, or SoP based on treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs), vital signs and ECGs.