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The Paradoxical Fear Response to Blood, Injury and Illness—A Treatment Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Jane Wardle  and
Martin Jarvis
Jane Wardle
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
Martin Jarvis
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
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Extract

Stimuli related to blood, injury and illness (BII) evoke a unique psychophysiological response, with signs of both sympathetic and parasympathetic arousal. Fainting, which occurs commonly in BII phobias, may represent the extreme of this reponse pattern. Data from the assessment and cognitive–behavioural treatment of a BII phobic subject are presented. At assessment the patient showed a massive bradycardia and near loss of consciousness on exposure to blood. This responded rapidly to treatment, although with some desynchrony between subjective and autonomic responses.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 1981 , pp. 13 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1981

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