Enhanced Relief of Phobias by Flooding During Waning Diazepam Effect

Abstract

Sedatives such as barbiturates, benzodiazepines and alcohol are valuable reducers of anxiety, but their effects do not endure for long after the drug has been metabolized and excreted. Phobics often become able to enter their phobic situation under the influence of sedatives, but as the drug effect wears off they begin to escape from the situation once more. This might be a form of drug-dissociative behaviour. In animal experiments, behaviour learned in the sedative drugged state often fails to transfer to the undrugged state (Miller, 1964). However, this effect might be more pronounced during the phase of peak drug effect than during the phase when the drug effect is wearing off. In rats, exposure to the phobic situation during slow withdrawal of sedative drugs was found to be effective in extinguishing conditioned avoidance responses (Sherman, 1967). That more lasting behavioural changes can follow treatment given both in the drug and in the non-drug state is suggested by evidence adduced by Baum (1971); he found that, in rats, avoidance behaviour which was learned both in the alcohol and in the non-drug state was more resistant to extinction than avoidance acquired in a non-drug state alone. The same might apply to approach behaviour in human phobics.