Generalized Fear Extinction to Untreated Fear Stimuli in Specific Phobias After Exposure

This study investigates whether a one-session exposure treatment for spider-related stimuli can lead to a generalization of extinguished fear to height-related stimuli in individuals with comorbid fear of spiders and fear of heights.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Fear of Spiders; Fear of Heights
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Exposure

Detailed Description

Exposure therapy has been proven to be effective in the treatment of specific phobias and in a variety of fear evoking situations and stimuli. However, since there is a high prevalence of comorbid fears, therapeutic interventions can get very extensive when each fearful situation and / or stimuli needs to be treated separately and over a repeated number of times. It has recently been shown, that exposure to one fearful stimuli (i.e., a spider), can also lead to a reduction of fear to another, perceptually and conceptually related, but untreated fearful stimulus (i.e., a cockroach) (Preusser, Margraf & Zlomuzica, 2017). Potentially, this generalization of exposure effects might also be relevant for coexisting fears that do not share conceptually related fearful stimuli (e.g., fear of spiders and fear of heights). The present study aims to investigate whether successful exposure treatment to one fearful stimulus (i.e., a spider) can also lead to a reduction of fear to an untreated fear evoking stimulus (i.e., height).

Participants will be randomly assigned to the treatment or no-treatment condition. The entire experimental procedure will take place in three sessions. The first session incorporates spider and height fear related questionnaires and two Behavioral Approach Tests (BATs): One that involves a spider and one that involves height. These BATs are counterbalanced in each group with half of participants receiving the spider BAT first and the height BAT second, and vice versa. The second session takes place approximately seven days later. The treatment group receives a seven-step in vivo exposure with spiders (duration: 1,5 hours). Twenty-four hours later, session 3 takes place and involves the same measures that were applied in session 1. The treatment and no-treatment group receive an identical set of measures except that the no-treatment group will not be subjected to exposure. The effects of exposure-based anxiety reductions toward spiders (treated fear stimulus) and heights (untreated fear stimulus to assess generalization of treatment outcome) are assessed on the behavioral and subjective level at pretreatment and posttreatment (24 hours after exposure).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Armin Zlomuzica, PhD; Phone Number: +492343222347; Email: armin.zlomuzica@rub.de
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Franziska Heidemann; Email: franziska.heidemann@rub.de

Study Locations

• Germany
  • Bochum, Germany, 44787
    • Mental Health Research and Treatment Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 40 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Comorbid presence of fear of spiders and fear of heights [Potential diagnosis of specific phobias (arachnophobia and acrophobia) assessed by application of the Diagnostic Short-Interview for Mental Disorders (Mini-Dips)].

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any acute or chronic mental and / or somatic disease
• Psychological, psychiatric, neurological or pharmacological treatment (Application of the Mini-DIPS to screen for the presence of a psychological condition)
• Drug or alcohol abuse
• Pregnancy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Exposure; Participants of this arm receive one 120-minute session of exposure treatment for spider fear.	Behavioral: Exposure; The exposure session comprises a hierarchy of 7 steps, reaching from (1) holding a glass with the spider 30cm in from the body / face, to (7) letting the spider walk on the arm. The exposure session has a duration of 120 minutes. Prior to the exposure, participants receive psychoeducation on anxiety and phobias. A house spider (Tegenaria domestica) is used for the exposure.
No Intervention: No Exposure; Participants of this arm receive no exposure or other adequate treatment.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Behavioral Approach Test (BAT) for Spiders	Change in the Behavioral Approach Test (BAT) with spiders (treated fear stimulus) [Time Frame: Pretreatment (approx. 1 week before the treatment), Posttreatment (1 day after treatment), Follow-up (4 weeks between treatment and follow-up)]. During the Behavioral Approach Test (BAT) the closest distance to a spider as well as subjective fear and heart rate is measured.	Change in BAT scores from pre- to posttreatment (across one week from pretreatment to posttreatment)
Behavioral Approach Test (BAT) for Heights	Change in the Behavioral Approach Test with heights (untreated fear stimulus) [Time Frame: Pretreatment (approx. 1 week before the treatment), Posttreatment (1 day after treatment), Follow-up (4 weeks between treatment and follow-up)]. During the Behavioral Approach Test (BAT) the level of the approached height as well as subjective fear and heart rate is measured.	Change in BAT scores from pre- to posttreatment (across one week from pretreatment to posttreatment)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ)	Change in the Spider-fear related questionnaires [Time Frame: Pretreatment (approx. 1 week before the treatment), Posttreatment (1 day after treatment), Follow-up (4 weeks between treatment and follow-up)]. Self-report questionnaires assessing fear of spiders will be used. The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) will be applied. Scores on this scale range from 0 to 108, with higher scores indicating greater fear of spiders.	Change in FSQ scores from pre- to posttreatment (across one week from pretreatment to posttreatment)
Spider Fear Questionnaire (SPQ)	Change in the Spider-fear related questionnaires [Time Frame: Pretreatment (approx. 1 week before the treatment), Posttreatment (1 day after treatment), Follow-up (4 weeks between treatment and follow-up)]. Self-report questionnaires assessing fear of spiders will be used. The Spider Fear Questionnaire (SPQ) will be applied. Scores on this scale range from 0 to 31, with higher scores indicating greater fear of spiders.	Change in SPQ scores from pre- to posttreatment (across one week from pretreatment to posttreatment)
Spider Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ)	Change in the Spider-fear related questionnaires [Time Frame: Pretreatment (approx. 1 week before the treatment), Posttreatment (1 day after treatment), Follow-up (4 weeks between treatment and follow-up)]. Self-report questionnaires assessing fear of spiders will be used. The Spider Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ) will be applied. Scores on this scale range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater fear of spiders.	Change in SBQ scores from pre- to posttreatment (across one week from pretreatment to posttreatment)
Acrophobia Questionnaire (AQ)	Change in the height related questionnaire [Time Frame: Pretreatment (approx. 1 week before the treatment), Posttreatment (1 day after treatment), Follow-up (4 weeks between treatment and follow-up)]. Self-report questionnaires assessing fear of heights will be used. The German version of the anxiety subscale of the Acrophobia Questionnaire (AQ) will be used. Scores on these scales range from 0 to 120, with higher scores indicating greater fear of heights.	Change in AQ scores from pre- to posttreatment (across one week from pretreatment to posttreatment)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Fear and Disgust Rating	Self-developed, computerized fear and disgust ratings of 30 pictures of various animals (i.e., different mammals, insects, rodents, reptiles, birds). Participants have to rate their level of fear and disgust for each animal separately on a scale from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate greater fear and disgust for each animal.	Change in Fear and Disgust Rating from pre- to posttreatment (across one week from pretreatment to posttreatment)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ruhr University of Bochum

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Preusser F, Margraf J, Zlomuzica A. Generalization of Extinguished Fear to Untreated Fear Stimuli after Exposure. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2017 Dec;42(13):2545-2552. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.119. Epub 2017 Jun 7.
• Margraf, J. & Cwik, J. C. (2017). Mini-DIPS Open Access: Diagnostic Short-Interview for Mental Disorders. [Mini-DIPS Open Access: Diagnostisches Kurzinterview bei psychischen Störungen]. Bochum: Forschungs- und Behandlungszentrum für psychische Gesundheit, Ruhr-Universität. doi:10.13154/rub.102.9

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 6, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 7, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): October 7, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 28, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 4, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): April 8, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 30, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 28, 2023
• Last Verified: March 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Extinction; Anxiety Disorders; Exposure Therapy; Fear of Spiders; Fear of Heights; Generalization; Specific Phobias
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Phobic Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: AZ 032019

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No