Specific Phobia

The principal difficulty of patients diagnosed with specific phobia is that they experience a striking fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation (e.g., flying, heights, animals, receiving an injection, seeing blood). In children, crying, tantrums, freezing, or clinging may express the fear or anxiety.

The diagnosis of specific phobia is considered when the clinical picture of the patient presents the five following characteristics:

1. The phobic object or situation almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety.
2. The phobic object or situation is actively avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety.
3. The fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the specific object or situation and to the sociocultural context.
4. The fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting for 6 months or more.
5. The fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Important notice: You should not reach the decision that you or the person you have in mind, when reading the above clinical description, suffers from specific phobia. We encourage you to seek professional advice, if you feel that you or the persons you care about meet one or more of the clinical criteria.