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Published on: January 20, 2012
Symptom provocation in dental anxiety using cross-phobic video stimulation
Ulrike Lueken1, Jürgen Hoyer, Jens Siegert
1Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany. lueken@psychologie.tu-dresden.de
European Journal of Oral Sciences
|January 20, 2011
Summary
This study validated a new video method for dental phobia research. It confirmed that anxiety reactions to dental stimuli are specific and do not generalize to other phobic stimuli.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Video stimulation is used for dental phobia treatment.
- Limited data exists on the specificity of reactions to dental phobia stimuli.
- A novel cross-phobic video stimulation paradigm was developed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate a novel video-based paradigm for assessing dental anxiety.
- To investigate the specificity of subjective and autonomic responses to dental anxiety stimuli.
- To differentiate reactions to dental anxiety stimuli from non-dental anxiety stimuli.
Main Methods:
- Forty subjects were divided into high and low dental anxiety groups based on the Dental Fear Survey (DFS).
- Cross-phobic video stimulation was used, presenting dental anxiety, snake anxiety, and neutral scenes.
- Subjective anxiety ratings and autonomic responses (skin conductance) were measured.
Main Results:
- The high-DFS group reported greater anxiety to dental stimuli compared to neutral stimuli.
- Elevated skin conductance was observed for dental anxiety stimuli but not for snake anxiety stimuli in the high-DFS group.
- Subjective and autonomic responses were specific to dental anxiety stimuli.
Conclusions:
- The validated paradigm demonstrates that phobogenic reactions in dental anxiety are specific to dental stimuli.
- Anxiety responses to dental phobia do not generalize to unrelated phobic stimuli.
- This paradigm can advance research on dental anxiety's response systems and neural substrates.
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