Study Endorses Intensive Phobia Treatment for Children
An intensive approach to treating childhood phobias seems to be effective, says a study sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
After about a year of followup on 120 children who underwent the concentrated form of exposure therapy, researchers from Virginia Tech and Stockholm University in Sweden say there's a 75 percent cure rate, The New York Times reports.
In traditional exposure therapy, people are exposed to the source of their phobia over several sessions until they overcome their fear. But, in this trial with children, that acclimatization was condensed into a single three-hour session.
The study's preliminary findings were presented recently in Boston at the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy.
Virginia Tech psychology professor Dr. Thomas Ollendick, one of the study researchers, told the Times he believes children's brains are impressionable enough that one session is sufficient to teach them new thought patterns and break their cycles of fear.
Typical childhood phobias can range from fear of monsters to fear of thunderstorms. While some mental-health experts believe most kids will outgrow such fears without treatment, others see the need for therapy, the newspaper reports.
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