Injected stress hormone may cut fear of spiders

The answer to a ARACHNOPHOBE's darkest fears could be a simple injection away after scientists found that a dose of the body's natural stress hormone, cortisol, can help phobics deal better with fear of spiders.

Adding cortisol into an already stressful situation for those with phobias may sound paradoxical, but Dominique de Quervain at the University of Zurich in Switzerland wanted to exploit the stress hormone's ability to block fearful memories from being formed in his experiment.

Typical treatment

For arachnophobes, seeing a spider "leads to the reactivation of a fear memory that is stored in the brain," said Prof De Quervain.

A cortisol injection seemed to lower patients' fear levels compared with other patients receiving a placebo, according to results published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Treating a phobia typically involves a psychotherapist talking over the fear with a patient and forcing him or her to confront it. Arachnophobe Richard Bayliss had psychotherapy sessions that involved confronting a tiny dead spider.

Success rate

"Eventually we went into the garden and found a reasonable-sized one. He put it on my back, which was very unpleasant." Mr Bayliss also tried London Zoo's programme, which culminates in participants holding a tarantula and claims an 80 per cent success rate.

Forcing phobics to confront their fear works for most people, but not always permanently.

"It's actually a very good therapy, but in many patients the fear comes back in one or two months," said Prof De Quervain.