Effects of diazepam on approach, self-reported fear and psychophysiological responses in snake phobics

The effects of diazepam was assessed on a number of measures of phobic anxiety. Snake-phobic subjects underwent two sessions on either diazepam or placebo in a crossover design. In addition to a habituation series, a slide with the phobic object was displayed as well as a live snake which subjects were asked to approach. The anxiolytic effect of diazepam was manifest in only one measure of fear, namely self-rated fear at the point of closest approach when it also attained the highest level. The result would indicate that diazepam has an anxiolytic only on high levels of subjective anxiety. The magnitude of the phasic cardiac reaction to the slide was highly and positively correlated with self-rated fear of the slide.