Are you afraid of spiders? No? But according to statistics in the USA afraid of spiders more than 50% of women and 10% men. Arachnophobia suffer from many celebrities such as johnny Depp, Justin Timberlake, Andre Agassi and many other media personality. But soon things can change, because researchers from the Netherlands found an unusual method by which such people can be cured of their phobia in just a couple of minutes.
As a rule, for the treatment of arachnophobia is used behavioral therapy. The patient is forced to literally face to face with their fears. It needs to communicate directly with the spider, gradually getting closer to him, until the touch. Another common method of treatment is the use of various computer programs and video games (including those created for virtual reality), in which a person is in contact with the source of his phobia. But all these methods do not ensure 100% result, so the scientists hoped to find a more effective method of treatment.
The answer came from the University of Amsterdam, where a group of scientists led by Marieke Saether has developed a completely new approach to the treatment of arachnophobia. They used the traditional confrontational therapy with the drug propranolol. It turned out that only one short session can effectively save the patient from his phobia for up to one year (longer studies have not yet been conducted). As a test were 45 volunteers who suffer from arachnophobia. First, the control group was asked to take medication and spend a few moments in the company of a tarantula, and the second group instead of the drugs received the placebo.
Propranolol is a nonselective beta-blocker, which reduces the frequency and force of heart rate, myocardial contractility, lower blood pressure and tone of the bronchi. Further studies showed that the first group of test subjects in the future, had much less fear of spiders than a second, the reaction of which phobia did not change. Scientists explain this by the fact that the introduction of the drug in the activation of negative associations, called a meeting with the spider resulted in the modification of bad memories. Simply put, patients simply forget about their negative emotions associated with arachnophobia.
Scientists believe that this method is quite applicable in the case of a wide range of phobias. So in the future it is not excluded the introduction of such therapies for the treatment of claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), aquaphobia (fear of floating), aichmophobia (fear of sharp objects) and other common irrational fears.