Desensitization and Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Phobic States: A Controlled Inquiry

There is still much disagreement about the best way to treat patients with phobic states. Until recently, drugs and various forms of psychotherapy have mainly been used. Lately, behaviour therapy has also come into use, as graded retraining in practice (Meyer and Gelder, 1963), or as desensitization in imagination (Rachman, 1959; Wolpe, 1961). Since few investigations have included adequate control groups, results such as those of Wolpe (1961) cannot indicate whether behaviour therapy is an advance on existing forms of treatment.