Preventing return of fear in an animal model of anxiety: additive effects of massive extinction and extinction in multiple contexts.

Preventing return of fear in an animal model of anxiety: additive effects of massive extinction and extinction in multiple contexts.
Behav Ther. 2013 Jun;44(2):249-61
Authors: Laborda MA, Miller RR
Abstract
Fear conditioning and experimental extinction have been presented as models of anxiety disorders and exposure therapy, respectively. Moreover, the return of fear serves as a model of relapse after exposure therapy. Here we present two experiments, with rats as subjects in a lick suppression preparation, in which we assessed the additive effects of two different treatments to attenuate the return of fear. First, we evaluated whether two phenomena known to generate return of fear (i.e., spontaneous recovery and renewal) summate to produce a stronger reappearance of extinguished fear. At test, rats evaluated outside the extinction context following a long delay after extinction (i.e., a delayed context shift) exhibited greater return of extinguished fear than rats evaluated outside the extinction context alone, but return of extinguished fear following a delayed context shift did not significantly differ from the return of fear elicited in rats tested following a long delay after extinction alone. Additionally, extinction in multiple contexts and a massive extinction treatment each attenuated the strong return of fear produced by a delayed context shift. Moreover, the conjoint action of these treatments was significantly more successful in pre...

Source: Behavior Therapy - May 26, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Laborda MA, Miller RR Tags: Behav Ther Source Type: research