Self-treatment of agoraphobia by exposure

Phobic outpatients were randomly assigned to receive self-exposure instructions from a psychiatrist, a self-help book or a computer programmed with those instructions. 40 agoraphobics completed the study and 6 did not (2 per condition). Mean therapy time of the psychiatrist per agoraphobic in the 3 conditions was 3.1, 0 and 1.2 hours respectively. All 3 groups of agoraphobics improved substantially up to 6 months followup, with no significant differences between them. Appropriate exposure instructions can confer major therapeutic benefits despite only brief contact with the clinician; outcome was comparable with that from therapist-aided exposure or antidepressants in other studies using similar phobia scales.