Exposure is considered the most effective treatment option for anxiety disorders with extinction representing a central mechanism to achieve this. Exposure therapy benefit can vary considerably among patients. The principal aim of this project is to identify novel tools to optimize extinction and thus exposure-based therapy outcome in spider-fearful individuals. We will study the potential role of stress and self-efficacy enhancement on exposure-therapy outcome and generalization of treatment effects. To dissect the underlying behavioral and neuronal mechanisms, the effects of self-efficacy enhancement on differential fear conditioning with electrodermal, neuronal and subjective responses as dependent measures will be examined.
Guiding questions of A13:
Blackwell SE, Woud ML, Margraf J, Schönbrodt FD (2019) Introducing the Leapfrog Design: A Simple Bayesian Adaptive Rolling Trial Design for Accelerated Treatment Development and Optimization. Clin Psychol Sci. 7(6): 1222–1243.
Raeder F, Heidemann F, Schedlowski M, Margraf J, Zlomuzica A (2019) No pills, more skills: The adverse effect of hormonal contraceptive use on exposure therapy benefit. J Psychiatr Res. 119: 95–101.
Raeder F, Karbach L, Struwe H, Margraf J, Zlomuzica A (2019) Low Perceived Self-Efficacy Impedes Discriminative Fear Learning. Front Psychol. 10: 144.
Raeder F, Merz CJ, Margraf J, Zlomuzica A (2020) The association between fear extinction, the ability to accomplish exposure and exposure therapy outcome in specific phobia. Sci Rep. 10(1): 4288.
Raeder F, Merz CJ, Tegenthoff M, Wolf OT, Margraf J, Zlomuzica A (2019) Post-exposure cortisol administration does not augment the success of exposure therapy: A randomized placebo-controlled study. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 99: 174–182.
Raeder F, Woud ML, Schneider S, Totzeck C, Adolph D, Margraf J, Zlomuzica (2019) A Reactivation and Evaluation of Mastery Experiences Promotes Exposure Benefit in Height Phobia. Cognit Ther Res. 43: 948–958.
Woud ML, Becker ES (2014) Editorial for the Special Issue on Cognitive Bias Modification Techniques: An Introduction to a Time Traveller’s Tale. Cognit Ther Res. 38(2): 83–88.
Woud ML, Holmes EA, Postma P, Dalgleish T, Mackintosh B (2012) Ameliorating intrusive memories of distressing experiences using computerized reappraisal training. Emotion. 12(4): 778–784.
Woud ML, Zlomuzica A, Cwik JC, Margraf J, Shkreli L, Blackwell SE, Gladwin TE, Ehring T (2018) Effects of appraisal training on responses to a distressing autobiographical event. J Anxiety Disord. 56: 26–34.
Zlomuzica A, Schneider S, Konrad C, Merz CJ, Wolf OT, Raeder F, Margraf J (2020) Clinical implications of fear extinction in anxiety disorders. Neuroforum. 26(3): 143-149.