- Dr Andrea Reinecke, an Oxford University clinical psychologist developing an innovative, effective, single-session Cognitive Behavioural Therapy treatment for anxiety disorders.
This is the second year of our Fellows’ programme, which supports the 'best and brightest' early career scientists to become future leaders in mental health research. The calibre of the candidates this years was, yet again, exceptional, demonstrating the depth of talent in mental health science. We were particularly delighted that so many talented young scientists want to devote themselves to resolving pressing mental health questions.
You can read the announcement and more about our 2014 winners on our website here. We will also be promoting the new research through social media.
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Expert locks people in a cupboard to help them deal with fears head on
Mail Online, 10/11/2014, Jonathan O’Callaghan
An Oxford University researcher has claimed that confronting fears head on can actually be beneficial and help people get over them. In controlled experiments she locked people in cupboards to help them deal with panic attacks and anxiety disorders, and she says the method could be used for other phobias as well.
Dr Andrea Reinecke from the University of Oxford explained how getting people to face their fears could cure them of their phobias. The method is known as single-session, exposure-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). For example, shutting someone in a broom cupboard for 15 minutes could cure them of panic attacks and anxiety disorders in just one session. According to her study in the journal Biological Psychiatry, a third of patients were cured after one day of treatment. The method involves ‘retraining the brain’ into recognising that something it took to be a fear is actually not as bad as thought.
Dr Reinecke says the single-session CBT treatment could be used in place of drugs for patients suffering certain mental conditions. She has been awarded a grant of £225,000 ($358,000) by the new mental health research charity MQ: Transforming Mental Health to trial the method for other phobias, including forcing arachnophobes to watch spiders up close for 30 minutes.
And:
Radio: Simon Lederman, BBC London 94.9
10/11/2014, 22:11, 22:50, 23:32 & 11/11/2014, 01:32
Discussion of research reported in The Times yesterday into Oxford University research into phobias. Known as high-exposure single-session cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), it puts people straight into the situation they fear so that can quickly realise it is not actually that terrible.