New way of doing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is to take a medication just before CBT that enhances learning and reduces fear and combine it with exposure therapy to address the fear. See below:
” The new data provide more evidence that D-cycloserine enhances the efficacy of exposure therapy in people with phobias. An earlier study conducted at Emory University demonstrated similar results in individuals with acrophobia, the fear of heights. According to Stefan Hofmann, associate professor of clinical psychology and lead investigator of the BU study, his team’s research offers a number of complementary features: it represents the use of DCS in a common anxiety disorder known for its marked distress and disabling effects; it examines treatment outcomes for a condition that has been the target of large-scale combination treatment trials, with little advantage shown for the addition of drugs over behavior therapy alone; it utilizes a longer course of therapy; and, it utilizes clinicians from several sites and both individual- and group-treatment formats that are consistent with the ways in which behavior therapy is provided in clinical settings.
“Studies like this may usher in a new strategy for combining medications and cognitive-behavior therapy,” suggests Dr. Otto. “Instead of simply combining medications and therapy that are each designed to reduce anxiety and avoidance, the use of DCS is directed toward making the therapeutic learning in cognitive-behavior therapy stronger. Medication use is limited to only a few doses, taken before therapy sessions.”
Researchers from the anxiety clinics at Massachusetts General Hospital and Southern Methodist University also participated in the study.
