Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T15:18:19.543Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Results of Systematic Desensitization with Phobias Re-examined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

N. McConaghy
N. McConaghy*
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the published results of controlled trials of systematic desensitization with phobic patients there has been a consistent trend apparently overlooked by the authors. If this trend is valid, it means the results of such therapy with agoraphobic patients have been better, and those with patients with specific phobias worse than the authors have concluded. Understandably, the authors' interpretation of their results have been accepted and in fact used to discredit the value of behaviour therapy (Mayer, 1969). If an interpretation of results of trials which indicates that treatment is of considerable value is overlooked, and one which indicates that it is of little value stressed, the reason for this should be examined. Psychiatry is not so rich in demonstrably useful therapies that it can afford to allow one to be discredited before it is adequately evaluated. Yet this attitude is not limited to the above trials but is also commonly found in the reports of drug trials (McConaghy, 1966).

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 117 , Issue 536 , July 1970 , pp. 89 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

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

Cooper, J. E. (1963). ‘A study of behaviour therapy in thirty psychiatric patients.’ Lancet, i, 411–15.Google Scholar
Free, S. M. (1962). ‘Experimental design in human psychopharmacology.’ In Psychosomatic Medicine (ed. Nodine, and Moyer, ), p. 357, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Gelder, M. G., and Marks, I. M. (1966). ‘Severe agoraphobia: a controlled prospective trial of behaviour therapy.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 309–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gelder, M. G., Marks, I. M., and Wolff, H. H. (1967). ‘Desensitization and psychotherapy in the treatment of phobic states: a controlled inquiry.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 113, 53–73.Google Scholar
Lader, M. H., Gelder, M. G., and Marks, I. M. (1967). ‘Palmar skin conductance measures as predictors of response to desensitization.’ J. psychosom. Res., 11, 283–90.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J., and Lazovik, A. P. (1963). ‘Experimental desensitization of a phobia.’ J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 66, 519–25.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J., and Lazovik, A. P. and Reynolds, D. J. (1965). ‘Desensitization, suggestibility and pseudotherapy.’ J. abnorm. Psychol., 70, 395–402.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M., and Gelder, M. G. (1965). ‘A controlled retrospective study of behaviour therapy in phobic patients.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 111, 561–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marks, I. M., Gelder, M. G. and Edwards, G. (1968). ‘Hypnosis and desensitization for phobias: A controlled prospective trial.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 114, 1263–74.Google Scholar
Mayer, D. Y. (1969). ‘A psychotherapist's note on behaviour therapy.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 115, 429–33.Google Scholar
McConaghy, N. (1966). ‘Clinical trials and behaviour therapy.’ (letter). Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 847–8.Google Scholar
McConaghy, N. and Lovibond, S. H. (1967). ‘Methodological formalism in psychiatric research.’ J. nerv. ment. Dis., 114, 117–23.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E., Hollister, L. E., and Dalai, S. N. (1967). ‘Psychiatric drug research.’ Arch. gen. Psychiat., 16, 152–61.Google Scholar
Paul, G. L. (1966). Insight vs. Desensitization in Psychotherapy. An Experiment in Anxiety Reduction. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Paul, G. L. (1967). ‘Insight versus desensitization in psychotherapy two years after termination.’ J. cons. Psychol., 31, 333–48.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.