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Cognitive behaviour therapy for a specific phobia of vomiting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2009

David Veale
David Veale*
Affiliation:
NIHR Specialist Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
*
*Author for correspondence: Dr D. Veale, Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma, 99 Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ, UK (email: David.Veale@iop.kcl.ac.uk)
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Abstract

This article summarizes the current knowledge and treatment for a specific phobia of vomiting (SPOV). It is relatively uncommon compared to other specific phobias but may have been misdiagnosed in catchment-area surveys. The differential diagnosis of SPOV includes obsessive–compulsive disorder, hypochondriacal disorder and anorexia nervosa. I discuss the following: a model that is linked to past aversive experiences of vomiting; conducting a clinical assessment; making a formulation; psycho-education, engagement and therapy. The strategies employed depend on the formulation but are likely to include: exposure in vivo to cues of vomiting, exposure in imagination and role-plays of vomiting, imagery re-scripting, behavioural experiments; and dropping of safety-seeking behaviours.

Keywords

Cognitive behaviour therapyexposurespecific phobiavomiting
Type
Education and supervision
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , December 2009 , pp. 272 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2009

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