Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:48:38.347Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Arousal Levels and Attribution Effects in Diazepam-Assisted Flooding

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Derek Johnston  and
Dennis Gath
Derek Johnston
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Dennis Gath
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The therapeutic effect of flooding was thought originally to depend on the induction of high levels of anxiety by the presentation of intensely frightening situations in imagination or practice (Stampfl and Levis, 1967; Marks et al., 1971). More recent evidence indicates that high arousal may not be essential in flooding and may even be disadvantageous. Hussain (1971) reported that patients with agoraphobia and social phobias responded better to imaginai flooding when it was accompanied by the intravenous infusion of thiopental. Marks et al. (1972), treating patients with specific phobias, found that flooding carried out by exposure to the phobic situations was more effective if combined with an anxiolytic drug, oral diazepam. There was some evidence that flooding was most effective if it took place several hours after administration of the drug.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 123 , Issue 575 , October 1973 , pp. 463 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Davison, G. C., and Valins, S. (1969). ‘Maintenance of self-attributed and drug-attributed behaviour change.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11, 25–33.Google Scholar
Gelder, M. G., Bancroft, J. H. J., Gath, D. H., Johnston, D. W., Mathews, A. M., and Shaw, P. M. (1973). ‘Specific and non-specific factors in behaviour therapy.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 445–62.Google Scholar
Hussain, M. Z. (1971). ‘Desensitization and flooding (implosion) in the treatment of phobias.’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 1509–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNair, D. M., and Lorr, M. (1964). ‘An analysis of mood in neurotics.’ Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 69, 620–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marks, I., Boulouoourb, J., and Marset, P. (1971). ‘Flooding versus desensitization in the treatment of phobic patients: a crossover study.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 353–75.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M., Viswanathan, R., Lipsedge, M. S., and Gardner, R. (1972). ‘Enhanced relief of phobias by flooding during waning diazepam effect.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 493–506.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stampfl, T. G., and Levis, D. J. (1967). ‘Essentials of implosive therapy: a learning-theory-based psycho-dynamic behavioural therapy.’ Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72, 496–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.