Would a tablet help to overcome phobias? In any case, this is what Dutch researchers are proposing. A beta blocker has an almost immediate effect.
These little animals with long legs, sometimes hairy, disgust thousands or even millions of people. This fear is so widespread that dozens of films have been devoted to it. You will no doubt have recognized arachnophobia. Until now, apart from cognitive-behavioral therapies, traditional approaches were rare to deal with it.
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) propose an impressive technique of simplicity in the December edition of Biological Psychiatry : a beta-blocker tablet.
Placed in front of a tarantula
The team relied here on the notion of “reconsolidation”, discovered 15 years ago. It states that when a fear memory is activated, it can be strengthened or weakened with the help of medication. This theory has been put to the test in tests on animals and on healthy people.
To carry out this study, 45 brave arachnophobes were recruited. The protocol was however discouraging: all the volunteers were placed for two minutes in front of a tarantula – the least tasty of the spider family. An already substantial effort but which is only rewarded in half of the cases. In fact, one in two participants received propranolol, a beta blocker used in the treatment of high blood pressure. The others took a placebo.
An almost immediate effect
As amazing as it may sound, a single 40 mg dose of propranolol is enough to allay the symptoms of phobia. The volunteers who received it almost immediately show less avoidance behaviors, a typical sign of the phobia. Better: they even tend to approach tarantulas. And the effect is long-lasting: one year after the treatment, the benefits are still visible. “The new treatment is more surgery than therapy,” says lead author Merel Kindt.
The approach is all the more interesting as cognitive-behavioral therapies require several sessions before obtaining an effect. More work is needed to replicate these findings in larger populations, and in other phobias. But according to Dr. John Krystal, editor of the journal, “this elegant study raises the trail of a strategy that would speed recovery from anxiety disorders.”
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