The most common methods for the treatment of specific phobias are systematic desensitization and in vivo or exposure therapy. Systematic desensitization therapy Systematic desensitization therapy was introduced by Joseph Wolpe in 1958 and employs relaxation techniques with imagined situations. In a controlled environment, usually the therapist's office, the patient will be instructed to visualize a threatening situation (i.e., being in the same room with a dog). After determining the patient's anxiety level, the therapist then coaches the patient in breathing exercises and relaxation techniques to reduce their anxiety to a normal level. The therapy continues until the imagined situation no longer provokes an anxious response. This method was used in the above-mentioned study done by Drs. Hoffmann and Human whereby twelve female students at the Arcadia campus of Technikon Pretoria College in South Africa were found to possess symptoms of<unk> . These twelve students were provided with systematic desensitization therapy one hour per week for five to seven weeks; after eight months, the students were contacted again to evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy. Final results indicated the study was fairly successful with 75% of the participants showing significant improvement eight months after the study. However, in his book, Virtual Reality Therapy for Anxiety Disorders, Wiederhold questions the effectiveness of systematic desensitization as the intensity of the perceived threat is reliant on the patient's imagination and could therefore produce a false response in regards to the patient's level of anxiety. His research into recent technological developments has made it possible to integrate virtual reality into systematic desensitization therapy in order to accurately recreate the threatening situation. At the time of publication, there had been no studies done to determine its effectiveness. In vivo or exposure therapy In vivo or exposure therapy is considered the most effective treatment for<unk>  and involves systematic and prolonged exposure to a dog until the patient is able to experience the situation without an adverse response. This therapy can be conducted over several sessions or, as Lars-Göran Öst showed in a study done in 1988, can be done in a single multi-hour session. This study utilized 20 female patients suffering from various specific phobias and ranging in age from 16 to 44. Patients were each provided with an individual therapy session in which Öst combined exposure therapy with modeling (where another person demonstrates how to interact with the feared object) to reduce or completely cure the phobia. As each patient was gradually exposed to the feared stimulus, she was encouraged to approach and finally interact with it as her anxiety decreased, concluding the session when fear had been reduced by 50% or completely eliminated. Once the session was concluded, the patient was then to continue interaction with the feared object on her own to reinforce what had been learned in the therapy session. Öst's results were collected over a seven-year period and concluded that "90% of the patients were much improved or completely recovered after a mean of 2.1 hours of therapy". Self-help treatment Although most commonly done with the help of a therapist in a professional setting, exposure to dogs is also possible as a self-help treatment. First, the patient is advised to enlist the help of an assistant who can help set-up the exposure environment, assist in handling the dog during sessions, and demonstrate modeling behaviors. This should also be someone whom the patient trusts and who has no fear of dogs. Then, the patient compiles a hierarchy of fear provoking situations based on their rating of each situation. For example, on a scale from 0 to 100, a patient may feel that looking at photos of dogs may cause a fear response of only 50, however, petting a dog's head may cause of fear response of 100. With this list of situations from least to most fearful the assistant helps the patient to identify common elements that contribute to the fear (i.e., size of the dog, color, how it moves, noise, whether or not it is restrained, etc.). Next, the assistant helps the patient recreate the least fearful situation in a safe, controlled environment, continuing until the patient has had an opportunity to allow the fear to subside thus reinforcing the realization that the fear is unfounded. Once a situation has been mastered, the next fearful situation is recreated and the process is repeated until all the situations in the hierarchy have been experienced. Sample videos showing humans and dogs interacting without either exhibiting significant fear are available. Recovery timeframe and maintenance Whether utilizing systematic desensitization therapy or exposure therapy, several factors will determine how many sessions will be required to completely remove the phobia; however, some studies (such as a follow-up study done by Öst in 1996) have shown that those who overcome their phobia are usually able to maintain the improvement over the long-term. As avoidance contributes to the perpetuation of the phobia, constant, yet safe, real world interaction is recommended during and after therapy in order to reinforce positive exposure to the animal.
Cynophobia
Tokophobia
Phagophobia
Phonophobia
Nosophobia
Thermophobia
Arachnophobia
Mysophobia