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May 22nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — Fear of spiders, a type of
anxiety disorder, may be treatable in a single therapy session, according
to a small new study.
People with a lifelong spider phobia were able to touch or hold a
tarantula after a two- or three-hour therapy session, and the
effectiveness of the therapy continued for at least six months, the
Northwestern University researchers reported.
The lasting changes in the brain’s response to fear after short-term
therapy seen in this study offer new directions for treating other phobias
and anxiety disorders, the researchers said.
“Before treatment, some of these participants wouldn’t walk on grass
for fear of spiders or would stay out of their home … for days if they
thought a spider was present,” lead author Katherina Hauner, a
postdoctoral fellow in neurology, said in a university news release.
“But after a two- or three-hour treatment, they were able to walk right
up and touch or hold a tarantula,” she said. “And they could still touch
it [six months later]. They were thrilled by what they accomplished.”
Functional MRI brain scans revealed that the regions of the brain
associated with fear response lit up with activity when the 12 adult
participants simply looked at photos of spiders.
The participants were then asked to gradually approach a tarantula in a
terrarium but, on average, could get no closer than 10 feet.
As part of the therapy, the participants were taught about tarantulas
and learned that their terror-causing beliefs about them were not
true.
“They thought the tarantula might be capable of jumping out of the cage
and onto them,” Hauner said. “Some thought the tarantula was capable of
planning something evil to purposefully hurt them. I would teach them the
tarantula is fragile and more interested in trying to hide herself.”
The participants learned to approach the tarantula in slow steps until
they could touch the outside of the terrarium. They progressed to touching
the tarantula with a paintbrush and a glove, and eventually to petting it
or holding it with their bare hands.
Following therapy, brain scans showed that the participants had much
lower levels of activity in the fear-response regions of the brain when
they looked at photos of spiders. This reduced activity was still seen six
months after therapy.
The study was published May 21 in the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Fear of spiders is considered a specific phobia, a type of anxiety
disorder affecting about 7 percent of the population, the news release
noted.
More information
The American Psychiatric Association has more about phobias.
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