Online Exposure for Spider Phobia: Continuous Versus Intermittent Exposure
Open accessAbstract
Background: The aim of this research was to evaluate an online exposure treatment for spider phobia (www.feardrop.com) and to investigate the effects of intermittent versus continuous exposure. Methods: Spider phobic participants (N = 23) completed two 14-minute stages of laboratory-based online exposure. In the first of these stages exposure was either continuous or intermittent (alternating fearrelevant and -irrelevant images). One week later, participants commenced a sixstage home-based graded online exposure task, which was undertaken over 30 days. Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) ratings were taken throughout all exposure stages. Spider fear was assessed prior to treatment, and at 1-week and 1-month post treatment. Results: Habituation was observed across each stage for both the laboratory and home-based tasks and generalisation of habituation was found between stages. Habituation was not impaired in the alternating fear-relevant and -irrelevant image condition, though subjects experienced less summed anxiety. Adherence rates were low in home-based online exposure. However, participants who completed 30-days post-treatment assessment (n = 14) showed a significant reduction in spider fear as measured by the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ). Conclusions: Online exposure produces habituation and generalisation of habituation to spider images as well as longer-term reductions in spider fear. Alternating fear-relevant and -irrelevant exposure is feasible in online exposure and may lead to habituation with less summed anxiety that has implications for tolerability and acceptability. Measures to increase adherence rates and hence dosage delivered are a key consideration for further online exposure research.
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Web-based interventions often face difficulties such as medium to high dropout rates and low adherence to treatment.
“Web-based interventions often face difficulties such as medium to high dropout rates [92] and low adherence to treatment [93].”
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Matthews, A. J., Scanlan, J. D., & Kirkby, K. C. (2012) · Behaviour Change · doi:10.1017/bec.2012.7 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
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Mor, S., Botella, C., Campos, D., Carlbring, P., Tur, C., & Quero, S. (2022) · Internet Interventions · doi:10.1016/j.invent.2022.100510 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
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Matthews, 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
Self-citationActivación psicofisiológica de pacientes con zoofobias ante un ambiente de realidad virtual
Barbosa, E. P., Reyes, A. C. D., Duran, D. A. P., Bertel, L., Toro, J. P., & Gaviria, F. A. (2021) · Revista Virtual Universidad Católica del Norte · doi:10.35575/rvucn.n62a6 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Dominguez-Rodriguez, A., Sanz-Gomez, S., González Ramírez, L. P., Herdoiza-Arroyo, P. E., Trevino Garcia, L. E., de la Rosa-Gómez, A., González-Cantero, J. O., Macias-Aguinaga, V., Arenas Landgrave, P., & Chávez-Valdez, S. M. (2024) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/53767 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Web-based interventions often face difficulties such as medium to high dropout rates [92] and low adherence to treatment [93].”
Background
- Authors
- Matthews, A. J., Wong, Z. H., Scanlan, J. D., & Kirkby, K. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Tasmania (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Matthews, Allison J.
- Venue
- Behaviour Change
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011-09-01
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 143-155
- ISSN
- 0813-4839 (ISSN-L)
- 2049-7768
- OpenAlex
- W2119756152
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- Behaviour Change (publishedVersion)
- eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Keywords
- spider phobia, intermittent exposure, continuous exposure, habituation, fear extinction, medication adherence, anxiety reduction
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