Treatment of Phobic Disorders

Abstract

In this chapter we are concerned primarily with the clinical application of exposure in vivo procedures. Treatment procedures as applied in experimental studies are not always directly comparable to the clinical application. As we have already discussed in the previous chapter, a functional behavior analysis is not made, but patients are randomly assigned to treatment conditions. In research studies all patients have to be treated in the same manner. The research requirements usually leave little room for individual variation within the procedures applied. Number of sessions, duration of sessions, spacing of sessions, and degree of therapist involvement all have to be specified before the start of the study. The goal of the present chapter is to provide some clinical guidelines on how to conduct exposure in vivo procedures.