Pill to Treat Fear of Heights

A pill could aid people overcome an irrational fear of heights, says study.

The capsule - which contains the stress hormone cortisol - works with traditional therapy to help people forget what makes them frightened, reports the Daily Mail.

Phobias - Facts, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention
A phobia is an irrational and exaggerated fear of an object or a situation that in reality, poses little or no actual danger.

In tests, three sessions of treatment were enough to reduce panic caused by heights.

Fear of high places, or acrophobia, is one of the most common phobias. It can be treated by exposing people to heights, or by recreating the experience of being high up using virtual reality glasses.

However, the technique is rarely fully successful. The new method combines this "exposure therapy" with a dose of cortisol, the hormone released by the body in times of stress. The international team of scientists tested the effects of a cortisol pill on 40 people suffering from acrophobia.

Volunteers were either given cortisol or a placebo an hour before they egan exposure treatment.

At the end they were asked to gauge how scared they were using a questionnaire. Those taking cortisol were noticeably less fearful.

Deformed Vertical Perception is The Reason Behind Fear of Heights: Study
Two American studies suggest that some people start shaking atop skyscrapers, or feel their knees buckle going over bridges, because they significantly overestimate vertical distances.

The effects were also lasting, with the volunteers still feeling less frightened a month after taking the pill.

The scientists believe that cortisol works by making people forget what they are scared of. It is thought to cut blood flow to regions of the brain that retrieve memories, leaving people unable to recall their phobia of heights.

Fears Learnt, Not a Part of Us
The long-held viewpoint that humans have an innate sense of fear towards snakes and spiders and other creatures has been contradicted by a recent study.

The report has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Source-ANI