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Cognitive-behavioural Treatment of Blood-Injury-Injection Phobia: A Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Alanda Thompson
Alanda Thompson*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
*
*Address for correspondence: Alanda Thompson, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia. Email: alanda@psy.uq.edu.au
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Abstract

This single case study examined the treatment of blood-injury-injection (BII) phobia in a 14-year-old female. Thirteen 1-hour sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy were conducted. The intervention included a combination of exposure, applied tension, and cognitive restructuring in an effort to produce clinically significant reductions in anxiety and fainting in response to BII stimuli. Results did indeed show dramatic reductions in subjective distress in BII situations from baseline to post-treatment. This was supported by small reductions in phobic anxiety and general anxiety on self-report measures. In contrast to baseline, fainting did not occur during treatment. The subject rated cognitive restructuring as the most effective treatment component for the latter half of therapy. It is suggested that, to date, the importance of cognitive therapy for the treatment of BII phobia has been overlooked.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , 01 September 1999 , pp. 182 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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