D-Cycloserine And Conditioning: Increasing The Effectiveness Of Exposure Therapy For Fear And Anxiety

Funded Activity Summary

The psychological, social, and financial costs of anxiety problems are among the highest burden-of-disease costs to the community. The most effective long-term psychological treatment for anxiety disorders is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), in particular exposure therapy. However only a small minority of individuals receive comprehensive treatment, and a portion of these individuals re-experience symptoms in the long-term. These difficulties are partially due to the cost of treatment and difficulties with relapse. Recent research has shown that D-Cycloserine (DCS) facilitates extinction in animals and possibly in humans. DCS has the potential to offer a simple, brief, and cost-effective intervention that enhances treatment effects. In the United States the new NIMH director has set research into DCS and exposure to fear as a high priority that is likely to have a significant public health impact. This proposal provides an opportunity for Australian researchers to become involved in a rapidly expanding research field. The research team at UNSW have already established an international reputation in DCS applications, fear conditioning in humans, and clinical trials in humans. They are in a unique position internationally to investigate the means by which DCS exerts its effects and to conduct randomised clinical trials of DCS in recovery from fear in humans.The goal is to test DCS in facilitating exposure and extinction of fear. The research will directly lead to recommendations for clinical application and demonstrate whether the drug has the capability of significantly increasing the success of exposure therapy by reducing the time required for treatment, the rate of relapse, the financial cost of treatment, and the overall burden of anxiety to the community. The fear-conditioning studies will also inform our theoretical understanding of emotion processing and fear conditioning in humans, which in turn will allow clinical applications to be optimised.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2005

End Date: 01-01-2007

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $400,750.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Anxiety Treatment | Conditioning | D-Cyloserine | Exposure Therapy | Extinction | Fear | PTSD | Phobia | Trauma

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