Scared Of Spiders? There ’s An App For That

In this study, published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 33 participants (18 diagnosed with arachnophobia) used the Phobys app as recommended. Before and after using the app, they provided responses to several measures of fear: subjective fear ratings when approaching a real spider (a Behavioural Approach Test), the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ), and the Spider Phobia Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ), as well as a measure of disgust. They were also asked to rate how much they felt that their fears had reduced, post-intervention. A further 33 (17 diagnosed with arachnophobia) participants received no intervention, in order to provide control data. Analyses of these measures revealed that use of Phobys led to significantly lower subjective levels of fear when approaching real spiders, when compared to controls. Those who had used the AR app were also able to progress further in a Behavioural Approach Test with spiders than those who had received no intervention. The story was similar across all measures — app users subjectively felt less disgusted, scored lower on the FSQ and SBQ, and estimated higher levels of fear reduction than those assigned to the control group. Since this intervention was completed at home, there were varying levels of uptake. The majority of participants did more than one session (lasting 30 minutes), though some used it for upwards of two hours. Data analysis showed that after an average of only 90 minutes of training with the app, clinica...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Technology Source Type: blogs