Systematic Desensitation

- Patients taught how to relax their muscles

- A desensitisation hierarchy is constructed – imagined scenes each causing anxiety from scenes that illicit high anxiety to scents of low anxiety.

- The patient then visualises the scenes while trying the relax at the same time.

- The patient must continue to do the same for other scenes in the hierarchy once they have mastered the scenes lower down the hierarchy.

2. Mc Grath et al (1990) – 75% of patients with phobias respond to SD

Marks (1987) – flooding more effective than SD

Gelder et al (1989) – implosion therapy and SD don’t differ in effectiveness

3. Wolpe (1958) research initially used cats and creating a phobia by putting them in cages and administered electric shocks and then reduced anxiety by giving them food. Eventually they could be placed in similar cages with no anxiety. Humans may not respond to this in the same way.

- Only treats symptoms and not the cause

- Effective in helping to function on a daily basis

- Symptoms often recur at a later date in a different form

- Unethical to cause anxiety.