Induced mood, phobic responding and the return of fear

The link between depression and phobic responding is poorly understood. Forty-eight spider phobics were exposed to videotaped spider sequences whilst in relatively depressed or relatively elated moods, then presented the same stimuli whilst in a neutral mood. Results indicated that depressed mood increased initial responding, and was associated with greater return of fear during the second (non-mood) sequence. The return of fear was not attributable solely to differential habituation rates during the first sequence, suggesting that the differences observed may have been due to cognitive effects.