Evaluation of behavioural treatments

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Evaluation of behavioural therapies (classical conditioning)
- Appropriate therapy for treating anxiety disorders
  - Relatively quick in comparison to psychodynamic therapy
  - No side effects
- Effectiveness
  - McGrath et al (1990) - 75% effective for those treated with systematic desensitization.
  - Systematic desensitization is the preferred therapy for individuals
  - Ost et al (1991) exposed patients to a hierarchy in one session of several hours and found 90% of those with spider phobias seemed to be cured.
- Effectiveness in treating agoraphobia
  - It is the hardest phobic disorder to treat yet 60-80% are treated
  - However, 50% end in relapse (Craske and Barlow 1993)
- Combining treatments
  - Systematic desensitization alone was equally effective as behavioural therapy and drug treatment
  - Beurs et al. (1995) found that systematic desensitization combined with medication was the most effective treatment for panic disorder with agoraphobia
- Symptom substitution
- Unpredictable effects of therapy
  - cannot anticipate the effects of the therapy
  - Dangerous consequences:hyperventilation, raised blood pressure. Extremely unethical
Systematic desensitization alone was equally effective as behavioural therapy and drug treatment

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