The proposed research investigates a combined modality treatment for a clinically relevant form of anxiety that could easily lend itself to combined therapy, and includes tests for the hypothesized mechanisms underlying the interaction of drug and behavior therapy. This condition afflicts women in a ratio of greater than 3:1 over men. One-hundred eighty subjects are involved.
Specific aims are to determine: 1. Whether subjects receiving an anxiolytic drug (alprazolam) will progress through an exposure hierarchy more quickly than subjects receiving placebo. 2. Whether removal of the active drug following combined therapy results in a loss of the therapeutic gains and return of the fear. 3. Whether the addition of the active drug after exposure therapy with placebo provides any added benefit in the control of anxiety. 4. To describe the dose-response relationship for alprazolam's effects on exposure therapy. 5. Whether the drug (at different doses) impairs subjects' ability to comprehend and remember information (memory tests consist of word items as well as a written narratives); and if so, whether the degree of cognitive impairment subjects experience is correlated with the combined treatment's therapeutic effectiveness.
| Coldwell, Susan E; Wilhelm, Frank H; Milgrom, Peter et al. (2007) Combining alprazolam with systematic desensitization therapy for dental injection phobia. J Anxiety Disord 21:871-87 |
| Coolidge, Trilby; Heima, Masahiro; Coldwell, Susan E et al. (2005) Psychometric properties of the Revised Dental Beliefs Survey. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 33:289-97 |
| Kaakko, T; Murtomaa, H; Milgrom, P et al. (2001) Recruiting phobic research subjects: effectiveness and cost. Anesth Prog 48:3-8 |
| Kaakko, T; Coldwell, S E; Getz, T et al. (2000) Psychiatric diagnoses among self-referred dental injection phobics. J Anxiety Disord 14:299-312 |
| Coldwell, S E; Getz, T; Milgrom, P et al. (1998) CARL: a LabVIEW 3 computer program for conducting exposure therapy for the treatment of dental injection fear. Behav Res Ther 36:429-41 |
| Kaakko, T; Milgrom, P; Coldwell, S E et al. (1998) Dental fear among university employees: implications for dental education. J Dent Educ 62:415-20 |
| Kaakko, T; Milgrom, P; Coldwell, S E et al. (1998) Dental fear among university students: implications for pharmacological research. Anesth Prog 45:62-7 |
| Coldwell, S E; Kaufman, E; Milgrom, P et al. (1998) Acute tolerance and reversal of the motor control effects of midazolam. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 59:537-45 |
| Milgrom, P; Coldwell, S E; Getz, T et al. (1997) Four dimensions of fear of dental injections. J Am Dent Assoc 128:756-66 |
| Coldwell, S E; Milgrom, P; Getz, T et al. (1997) Amnestic and anxiolytic effects of alprazolam in oral surgery patients. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 55:1061-70 |
