One-session computer-based exposure treatment for spider-fearful individuals – Efficacy of a minimal self-help intervention in a randomised controlled trial
Abstract
Computer-based self-help treatments have been proposed to provide greater access to treatment while requiring minimum input from a therapist. The authors employed a randomised controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of one-session computer-based exposure (CBE) as a self-help treatment for spider-fearful individuals. Spider-fearful participants in a CBE group underwent one 27-min session of standardised exposure to nine fear-eliciting spider pictures. Treatment outcome was compared to spider-fearful control participants exposed to nine neutral pictures. Fear reduction was quantified on a subjective level by the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) and complemented with a behavioural approach test (BAT). Results demonstrate that compared to control participants, CBE participants showed greater fear reduction from pre- to posttreatment on both the subjective level (FSQ) and the behavioural level (BAT). Moreover, in contrast to the control group, the obtained subjective fear reduction effect remained stable in the CBE group at 1-month follow-up. These findings highlight the role of computer-based self-help as a minimal but effective intervention to reduce fear of spiders.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Internet-delivered psychological treatments for anxiety and phobias are feasible, acceptable, and effective.
“Thus, Internet-delivered psychological treatments for anxiety and phobias are feasible, acceptable, and effective.”
From Short-term effectiveness of web-based guided self-help for phobic outpatients: randomized controlled trial. (2014) · cites this paper as [24]
Cites
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593 · Cited by 20,391 · see citing works
Jacobson, N. S., & Truax, P. (1991) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.59.1.12 · Cited by 7,770 · see citing works
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1999) · Cited by 1,664 · see citing works
Bower, P., & Gilbody, S. (2005) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.186.1.11 · Cited by 1,084 · see citing works
Approach and avoidance in fear of spiders
Rinck, M., & Becker, E. S. (2006) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2006.10.001 · Cited by 706 · see citing works
Hautzinger, M., Keller, F., & Kühner, C. (2006) · Cited by 663 · see citing works
Treatment of specific phobia in adults
Choy, Y., Fyer, A. J., & Lipsitz, J. D. (2007) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2006.10.002 · Cited by 573 · see citing works
Common mental disorders. A bio-social model
King, M. (1993) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/0022-3999(93)90179-j · Cited by 553 · see citing works
Proudfoot, J., Ryden, C., Everitt, B., Shapiro, D. A., Goldberg, D., Mann, A., Tylee, A., Marks, I., & Gray, J. A. (2004) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.185.1.46 · Cited by 516 · see citing works
One-session treatment for specific phobias
Öst, L.-G. (1989) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(89)90113-7 · Cited by 498 · cited 1× · see citing works
“…found to be significantly less effective than the therapist-directed one-session treatment (OST) developed by Öst and colleagues, in which a therapist and client collaboratively work through the steps of the client’s fear hierarchy during a single therapy session of up to 3 h (Öst, 1989, 1996).”
BackgroundVirtual reality in the treatment of spider phobia: a controlled study
Garcia-Palacios, A., Hoffman, H., Carlin, A., Furness, T. A., & Botella, C. (2002) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(01)00068-7 · Cited by 490 · see citing works
Fear of spiders’ questionnaire
Szymanski, J., & O'Donohue, W. (1995) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/0005-7916(94)00072-t · Cited by 450 · see citing works
Virtual reality and tactile augmentation in the treatment of spider phobia: a case report
Carlin, A. S., Hoffman, H. G., & Weghorst, S. J. (1997) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(96)00085-x · Cited by 442 · see citing works
Knaevelsrud, C., & Maercker, A. (2007) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-7-13 · Cited by 398 · see citing works
PROUDFOOT, J., GOLDBERG, D., MANN, A., EVERITT, B., MARKS, I., & GRAY, J. A. (2003) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291702007225 · Cited by 389 · see citing works
Andersson, G., Carlbring, P., Holmström, A., Sparthan, E., Furmark, T., Nilsson-Ihrfelt, E., Buhrman, M., & Ekselius, L. (2006) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.74.4.677 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
Treatment of panic disorder: live therapy vs. self-help via the Internet
Carlbring, P., Nilsson-Ihrfelt, E., Waara, J., Kollenstam, C., Buhrman, M., Kaldo, V., Söderberg, M., Ekselius, L., & Andersson, G. (2005) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2004.10.002 · Cited by 372 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The efficacy of Internet therapy has been reported for panic disorder (Carlbring et al., 2005; Carlbring, Westling, Ljungstrand, Ekselius, & Andersson, 2001; Klein, Richards, & Austin, 2006), social phobia (Andersson et al., 2006), fear related to a traumatic event (Hirai & Clum, 2005),…”
BackgroundCarlbring, P., Brunt, S., Bohman, S., Austin, D., Richards, J., Öst, L.-G., & Andersson, G. (2007) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2005.05.002 · Cited by 319 · cited 2× · see citing works
“, 2001; Smith, Kirkby, Montgomery, & Daniels, 1997) and children (Dewis et al., 2001). While Gilroy et al. (2000) found superior treatment effects for the computer and the live-exposure treatment compared to a relaxation placebo control condition, Smith et al.”
BackgroundMethodTreatment of panic disorder via the internet: A randomized trial of a self-help program
Carlbring, P., Westling, B. E., Ljungstrand, P., Ekselius, L., & Andersson, G. (2001) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7894(01)80019-8 · Cited by 262 · see citing works
Efficacy of internet therapy for panic disorder
Klein, B., Richards, J. C., & Austin, D. W. (2006) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2005.07.001 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
Reger, M. A., & Gahm, G. A. (2009) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.20536 · Cited by 234 · see citing works
MARKS, I. M., KENWRIGHT, M., McDONOUGH, M., WHITTAKER, M., & MATAIX-COLS, D. (2004) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s003329170300878x · Cited by 226 · see citing works
One-session therapist-directed exposure vs. self-exposure in the treatment of spider phobia
Öst, L.-G., Salkovskis, P. M., & Hellström, K. (1991) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7894(05)80374-0 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Self-treatment of agoraphobia by exposure
Ghosh, A., & Marks, I. M. (1987) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7894(87)80047-3 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Epidemiology of anxiety disorders
Michael, T., Zetsche, U., & Margraf, J. (2007) · Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.mppsy.2007.01.007 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Self-citationA meta-analytic study of self-help interventions for anxiety problems.
Hirai, M., & Clum, G. (2006) · The Behavior Therapist · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2005.05.002 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
One-Session Treatment of Specific Phobias: A Detailed Description and Review of Treatment Efficacy
Zlomke, K. R., & Davis, T. E. (2008) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2007.07.003 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Speeded Detection and Increased Distraction in Fear of Spiders: Evidence From Eye Movements.
Rinck, M., Reinecke, A., Ellwart, T., Heuer, K., & Becker, E. S. (2005) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.114.2.235 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Interapy: Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress via the Internet
Lange, A., van de Ven, J.-P., & Schrieken, B. (2003) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506070302317 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Wells, J. E., Robins, L. N., Bushnell, J., Jarosz, D. A., & Oakley‐Browne, M. (1994) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/bf00802012 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Therapist Contact and Outcome of Self-exposure Treatment for Phobias
Ghosh, A., Marks, I. M., & Carr, A. C. (1988) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.152.2.234 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Hirai, M., & Clum, G. A. (2005) · Journal of Traumatic Stress · doi:10.1002/jts.20071 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
A home-based treatment program for agoraphobia
Mathews, A., Teasdale, J., Munby, M., Johnston, D. W., & Shaw, P. (1977) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7894(77)80161-5 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Reliabilität und Validität dreier Instrumente zur Messung von Angst vor Spinnen
Rinck, M., Bundschuh, S., Engler, S., Müller, A., Wissmann, J., Ellwart, T., & Becker, E. S. (2002) · Diagnostica · doi:10.1026//0012-1924.48.3.141 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Internet-Guided Self-Help with or without Exposure Therapy for Phobic and Panic Disorders
Schneider, A. J., Mataix-Cols, D., Marks, I. M., & Bachofen, M. (2005) · Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics · doi:10.1159/000084000 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Kenwright, M., Liness, S., & Marks, I. (2001) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.179.5.456 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Andersson, G., Waara, J., Jonsson, U., Malmaeus, F., Carlbring, P., & Öst, L. (2009) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506070902931326 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
One-session group treatment of spider phobia
Öst, L.-G. (1996) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(96)00022-8 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Epidemiology of anxiety disorders
Michael, T., & Margraf, J. (2004) · Psychiatry · doi:10.1383/psyt.3.4.2.32909 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Self-citationComputer‐Assisted Psychotherapy
Wright, J. H., Katz, M., & Tamas, R. L. (2010) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0211 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Gilroy, L. J., Kirkby, K. C., Daniels, B. A., Menzies, R. G., & Montgomery, I. (2000) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7894(00)80041-6 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Efficacy of self-help manuals for anxiety disorders in primary care: a systematic review
van Boeijen, C. A. (2005) · Family Practice · doi:10.1093/fampra/cmh708 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Controlled Study of Self-Exposure Treatment for Phobics: Preliminary Communication
Ghosh, A., Marks, I. M., & Carr, A. C. (1984) · Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · doi:10.1177/014107688407700608 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Computer-aided vicarious exposure versus live graded exposure for spider phobia in children
Dewis, L., Kirkby, K. C., Martin, F. H., Daniels, B. A., Gilroy, L. J., & Menzies, R. G. (2001) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s0005-7916(01)00019-2 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Öst, L.-G., Stridh, B.-M., & Wolf, M. (1998) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(97)10018-3 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Computer aids to mental health care
Marks, I. (1999) · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/070674379904400602 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Access and effectiveness in psychological therapies: self-help as a routine health technology
Richards, D. A., Lovell, K., & McEvoy, P. (2003) · Health & Social Care in the Community · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2524.2003.00417.x · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Computer-delivered modeling of exposure for spider phobia: Relevant versus irrelevant exposure
Smith, K. L., Kirkby, K. C., Montgomery, I., & Daniels, B. A. (1997) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/s0887-6185(97)00025-x · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Heading, K., Kirkby, K., Martin, F. H., Daniels, B., Gilroy, L. J., & Menzies, R. (2001) · Behaviour Change · doi:10.1375/bech.18.2.103 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Marks, I. M. (1986) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/bf00583996 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Computer-assisted psychotherapy
Block, B. (1986) · Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy · doi:10.1007/bf00946167 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Becker, E. S., Türke, V., Neumer, S., Soeder, U., Krause, P. R., & Margraf, J. (2000) · Radboud Repository (Radboud University) · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Gilroy, L. J., Kirkby, K. C., Daniels, B. A., Menzies, R. G., & Montgomery, I. (2003) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7894(03)80022-9 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Lessons from pilot tests of computer self-help for agora/claustrophobia and panic.
Sc, S., Marks, I. M., & Toole, S. (1999) · PubMed · Cited by 29 · see citing works
The use of computers in the assessment and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder
Lack, C., & Storch, E. (2008) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2007.02.010 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Computer-administered Behavior Therapies
Greist, J. H. (1989) · International Review of Psychiatry · doi:10.3109/09540268909110417 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Problem severity in people using alternative therapies for anxiety difficulties
Graham, C. R., Franses, A., Kenwright, M., & Marks, I. M. (2001) · Psychiatric Bulletin · doi:10.1192/pb.25.1.12 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Assessing the impact of ambulatory computer-based medical record systems.
Ew, L. (1999) · PubMed · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
2 of the 60 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Katzman, M. A., Bleau, P., Blier, P., Chokka, P., Kjernisted, K., Van Ameringen, M., & the Canadian Anxiety Guidelines Initiative Group on behalf of the Anxiety Disorders Association of Canada/Association Canadienne des troubles anxieux and McGill University (2014) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-14-s1-s1 · Cited by 1,090 · see citing works
“Computer-based self-help programs Spiders [334,335], flying [323], small animals [336,337]”
BackgroundMayo-Wilson, E., & Montgomery, P. (2013) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd005330.pub4 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Forcadell, E., Torrents‐Rodas, D., Vervliet, B., Leiva, D., Tortella‐Feliu, M., & Fullana, M. A. (2017) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2017.09.001 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Bertuzzi, V., Fratini, G., Tarquinio, C., Cannistrà, F., Granese, V., Giusti, E. M., Castelnuovo, G., & Pietrabissa, G. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.721382 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Kok, R. N., van Straten, A., Beekman, A. T. F., & Cuijpers, P. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.3429 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
“In past years, Internet interventions have been found efficacious for a number of anxiety disorders [17,18,20,21] and phobias, including agoraphobia [22], specific phobias [14,23,24], and social anxiety disorder [25-27].”
Immersive 3D exposure-based treatment for spider fear: A randomized controlled trial
Minns, S. A., Levihn‐Coon, A., Carl, E., Smits, J. A. J., Miller, W., Howard, D., Papini, S., Quiroz, S., Lee-Furman, E., Telch, M. J., et al. (2018) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.12.003 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Immersive 3D exposure-based treatment for spider fear: a randomized controlled trial
Minns, S., Levihn-Coon, A., Carl, E., Smits, J. A. J., Miller, W., Howard, D., Papini, S., Quiroz, S., Lee-Furman, E., Telch, M., et al. (2018) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.05.006 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Enhanced Discriminative Fear Learning of Phobia-Irrelevant Stimuli in Spider-Fearful Individuals
Mosig, C., Merz, C. J., Mohr, C., Adolph, D., Wolf, O. T., Schneider, S., Margraf, J., & Zlomuzica, A. (2014) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00328 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Matthews, A., Naran, N., & Kirkby, K. C. (2015) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.12.003 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Teunisse, A. K., Pembroke, L., O’Gradey‐Lee, M., Sy, M., Rapee, R. M., Wuthrich, V. M., Creswell, C., & Hudson, J. L. (2022) · JCPP Advances · doi:10.1002/jcv2.12080 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Katzman, M. A., Bleau, P., Blier, P., Chokka, P. R., Kjernisted, K. D., & Ameringen, M. V. (2021) · doi:10.32920/14638581 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Steudte‐Schmiedgen, S., Fay, E., Capitão, L. P., Kirschbaum, C., & Reinecke, A. (2021) · Journal of Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1177/02698811211001087 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
A Comparative Study Between Different Treatments for Spider Phobia
Ramírez-Fernández, C., Morán, A. L., & Meza-Kubo, V. (2021) · Mexican Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (MexIHC) · doi:10.1145/3492724.3492726 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Kappelmann, N., Suesse, M., Steudte‐Schmiedgen, S., Kaldewaij, R., Browning, M. D., Michael, T., Rinck, M., & Reinecke, A. (2019) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2019.101546 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationMatthews, A., Mackintosh, C., Williams, S., Williams, M., & Kirkby, K. (2017) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.07.012 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Ramírez-Fernández, C., Morán, A. L., & Meza-Kubo, V. (2022) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1093/iwc/iwac026 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
The Use of Technology to Augment Clinical Care in Depression and Anxiety Disorders: An Evidence Map
Maher, A. R., Apaydin, E. A., Raaen, L. B., Motala, A., Shanman, R., & Hempel, S. (2019) · RAND Corporation eBooks · doi:10.7249/rr2177 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Katzman, M. A., Bleau, P., Blier, P., Chokka, P. R., Kjernisted, K. D., & Ameringen, M. V. (2021) · doi:10.32920/14638581.v1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Negative Encoding Contexts Create a Downstream Memory Advantage for Foils
Lee, C. (2017) · UWSpace (University of Waterloo)
- Authors
- Müller, B. H., Kull, S., Wilhelm, F. H., & Michael, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Basel (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Müller, Birgit H.
- Venue
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-06
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 179-184
- ISSN
- 0005-7916 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2077012163
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- spider phobia, self-help intervention, single-session intervention, fear reduction, treatment efficacy
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Animals, Fear, Female, Humans, Implosive Therapy, Phobic Disorders, Surveys and Questionnaires, Spiders, Therapy, Computer-Assisted, Treatment Outcome, Statistics, Nonparametric
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
