Flooding

• Exposing phobic patients to the phobic stimulus immediately
• Immediate exposure disallows anxiety to build up
• Sessions last 2-3 hours and may only be needed once
• Extinction - the stopping of phobic responses due to stopping the option of avoidance which helps the patient to learn the stimulus is harmless
• Extinguishment - when the conditioned stimulus (dog) is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus (bite), disabling the learned response
• The result is that the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response (fear)
• Occasionally patients will become relaxed when facing their phobia as they have become exhausted by their own fear response
• Ethics

  • Flooding is not unethical, but unpleasant, so patients must give fully informed consent to the procedure so they’re fully prepared
  • Theres a choice between flooding and systematic desensitisation
• Strength - effective and cost effective

  • Studies comparing flooding to cognitive therapies have found flooding is highly effective and quicker than alternatives
  • Choy et al - reported that both SD and flooding were effective, but flooding was more effective
  • Therefore, patients are free of their symptoms faster and can stop treatment sooner, making treatment cheaper
• Weakness - less effective for some types of phobias

  • Less effective for more complex phobias, eg social phobias
  • Could be because of cognitive aspects (eg, they don’t experience anxiety responses but think unpleasant thoughts about social situations)
  • May benefit more from cognitive therapies as they tackle irrational thinking
• Weakness - Treatment is traumatic for patients

  • Highly traumatic and emotionally distressing experience which may be unethical (consent is given)
  • Patients may be unwilling to continue with the treatment and phobias may become worse
  • A possible waste of time and money