This study derives from an earlier one (Sutton, 1992) which examined the efficacy of training parents to manage difficult pre-school children via four methods: group, home visit, telephone, and waiting list/delayed intervention control. It is a replication of the telephone method of training; the author has never met any of the parents or children involved. Twenty-three children, seventeen boys and six girls, participated; of these one was aged 8, two were 7, one was 6, two 5 and the rest were under 5. They were randomly allocated to an immediate intervention group and a waiting list/delayed intervention control group.

Previous researchers have identified disinhibiting agents of restrained eating such as the ingestion of preloads, alcohol consumption, and negative affect. This study investigated worry as a purely cognitive inhibitor of dietary restraint. Seventy-five subjects who were screened as being high worriers and high restrainers were randomly assigned to three groups: eating-related worry; social-evaluative/school-related worry; non-worry. Subjects were induced to either worry or to think pleasant thoughts, and then take part in a bogus taste-test. Food consumption in worry-prone, chronic dieters was found to be triggered more by social-evaluative/school-related worries than by eating-related worries, or pleasant thoughts. Chronic dieting and worrying were found to be substantially related to measures of bulimic tendencies and trait anxiety, respectively. These findings may be germane to behaviour change programmes pertaining to bulimia.

Several empirical studies suggest that exposure in vivo and response prevention have a differential treatment effect on the complaints presented by patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In the present study it was hypothesized that exposure in vivo would result in a greater decrease of obsessional fear, whereas response prevention would result in a greater decrease of rituals. Forty patients, diagnosed with OCD, participated in the study. Half of the patients received exposure in vivo alone, followed by response prevention alone, and half received response prevention alone, followed by exposure in vivo alone. No differential treatment effects between exposure in vivo alone and response prevention alone could be found, although ritualistic behaviour was less strongly affected by exposure in vivo following response prevention.

Imagery appears to be associated with higher levels of anxiety than does worry. Borkovec has argued that worry could be a way of avoiding distressing imagery and the associated affect. Thus worry could suppress emotional activation, interfere with emotional processing, and contribute to the maintenance of anxiety. This hypothesis suggests that short and long-term effects of worrying after experiencing a distressing stimulus should differ from the effects of engaging in imagery. In the short term, imagery should maintain anxiety while worry should not do so, or should do so less. In the longer term, worry should be a less successful way of reducing anxiety associated with the stimulus than imagery, and should be followed by a greater number of intrusive cognitions (indicating the relative failure of emotional processing). These predictions were tested by asking subjects to worry, engage in imagery or “settle down” after watching a distressing video. The results were broadly consistent with the hypothesis. Other interpretations are also considered.

Injection phobia is a “specific phobia” (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) in which affected individuals display an atypical physiological response pattern resulting in vasovagal hypotensive fainting on prolonged exposure. Between 50–60% of people with injection phobia report a history of fainting when confronted with their phobic situation. Applied tension has been demonstrated to be an effective therapeutic intervention for blood phobia in which similar vasovagal responses occur (Öst, Fellenius and Stelner, 1991). It has been shown that cognitive factors can prevent engagement with the treatment of phobic disorders. A case meeting DSM-IV criteria for specific phobia, blood-injection-injury type (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) is described. It illustrates that cognitive factors may prevent full compliance with applied tension and that behavioural experimentation is a useful strategy for dealing with such phenomena.

This study explored both the short-term and long-term effectiveness of group anxiety management training. The treatment package employed ran along cognitive-behavioural principles. Consistent with previous evaluations the groups had a significant effect on levels of anxiety and depression as measured by self-report instruments. Participants rated “meeting people with similar problems” and “learning about anxiety” as the two most important therapeutic ingredients. At a follow-up period of greater than two years therapeutic gains, at least in part, seemed to have been maintained.

Space phobia is a well defined rare syndrome, similar but distinct from agoraphobia. Its key distinguishing feature is fear of absent visuospatial support (open spaces) and of falling. In the past, this condition has generally been considered resistant to treatment by exposure in vivo. We report a case of a woman suffering from severe space phobia who received a cognitive-behavioural based treatment package. The gains that she made are described, but overall her condition remained relatively resistant to therapy. We suggest that a degree of caution regarding outcome goals at the start of any similar treatment of this rare disorder is wise.