Multicomponent standardized treatment programs for fear of flying: Description and effectiveness

Behavioral and cognitive group treatment for fear of flying: A randomized controlled trial

“…A responder has to have both a statistically reliable and a clinically significant change. The cutoff point for clinically significant change was determined at two standard deviations below the mean on the (sub)scales of the FAS and FAM of untreated fear-of-flying patients in an independent and larger sample (Van Gerwen et al, 2002). A clinically significant change on (sub)scales where the mean was within two standard deviations above zero was defined as a score of zero on these subscales.…”

“…Review studies show that an increasing number of treatment facilities offer treatment programs for fear of flying, often in cooperation with airlines or major airports (Van Gerwen & Diekstra, 2000;Van Gerwen, Diekstra, Arondeus, & Wolfger, 2004). These treatment programs have proved to effectively reduce fear of flying (Greco, 1989;Howard, Murphy, & Clarke, 1983;Roberts, 1989;Van Gerwen, Spinhoven, Diekstra, & Van Dyck, 2002;Walder, McCracken, Herbert, James, & Brewitt, 1987). However, little is known about which specific method or elements of treatment programs work best (Van Gerwen & Diekstra, 2000).…”

“…In the present study, two treatment programs are compared which are running in an actual regular clinical practice, the VALK Foundation (a collaborative venture by the University of Leiden, KLM and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol): a 2-day CBGT program and a 1-day more behaviorally oriented group treatment (BGT) program. The two standardized treatment programs, conceptually based on Bandura's ''belief in self-efficacy'' theory (Bandura, 1977), are comprehensively described by Van Gerwen et al (2002).…”

Physiological reactivity to phobic stimuli in people with fear of flying

“…It can also be the effect of generalization of one or more natural environment phobias, such as fear of heights, falling, storms, water, instability, etc. Fear of losing control and a high need to have control over a situation is often associated with fear of flying [1,[5][6][7].…”

Phobias Across the Lifespan

“…Completion of the graduation flight was a strong predictor for long-term treatment efficacy (Mühlberger et al, 2006). Thus, it is still an open question whether VRET of flight phobia is as successful as the 2-day program presented by Van Gerwen and colleagues, showing that 98.6% of 685 treated patients did fly within the next 12 months (Van Gerwen et al, 2002). Santos and coworkers recently reported comparable success rates (Santos et al, 2011).…”