Scared of spiders? Take this pillA readily available anti-tuberculosis drug could also cure man's deepest, darkest phobias. Jo Revill reports

For some, the fear can drive them out of their own home. Others have to avoid feathers, subways, glass lifts or city squares that are filled with pigeons.
Phobias appear in many shapes and forms, affecting at least a quarter of the population. But doctors believe that a cure may soon be on hand from the most unlikely quarter.

They have discovered that a drug on the market for tuberculosis helps phobics to overcome their worst fears within a week. They believe it could be the anti-phobia pill which scientists have been searching for.

Early results from trials have been greeted with some excitement. The medication, D-cycloserine, works alongside traditional talking therapy and speeds up the process through which sufferers can learn how to beat their irrational panic.

The chemical causes changes to the amygdala, the part of the brain involved in learning and memory. It involves a protein that appears to kick-start a chain of neuro chemical events that enable people to relearn what makes them scared.

'These results are very exciting,' said Michael Otto, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. 'They represent a new direction for combining medication and cognitive-behavioural approaches to psychotherapy.'

So far, the pill has been trialled in a study by Michael Davis at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Davis took 30 acrophobics - people who are scared of heights - and put them in simulated glass lifts that appeared to go up and down. Those who had received the pill had dramatically reduced levels of fear compared with those who took a placebo.

All of them had received two sessions of psychotherapy. A small dose of D-cycloserine - 50mg - appeared as effective as the 500mg usually given to combat TB.

People with strong phobias usually receive some form of exposure therapy, where they are exposed to whatever it is that they fear, so that they can learn not to be afraid. But normally they need at least eight sessions of therapy before improvements are made, and it doesn't work for everyone.

Davis believes it could work in almost any situation where a person is very nervous, according to Chemistry and Industry magazine. 'It should help you get over whatever it is you are afraid of, as long as you face up to your fear.' Apart from phobias, it could also help people overcome their natural nervousness when learning new skills, such as snowboarding or riding.

The Atlanta team is now beginning a study looking at people with a fear of public speaking, and the Harvard group, led by Otto, is to examine whether the drug could help people who have a panic disorder, a very debilitating form of anxiety.

Theories have abounded over what phobias represent, with some speculating that they are an evolutionary throwback to a time when man had to be instinctively wary of poisonous animals or falling from a cliff.

There are three specific forms: agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces; social phobia, which affects relationships with other people; and specific phobia, dealing with particular stimuli such as spiders or birds.

Freud speculated that agoraphobics suffered because, as young children, they had feared being abandoned by unloving mothers. But modern theories suggest that it often occurs in people who tend to avoid situations that are painful or embarrassing.

The avoidance of danger is a common thread in many phobias, yet phobias about cars, which cause more death and injury than anything else, are unheard of. But inherently disgusting creatures, such as slugs and cockroaches, may relate to an innate avoidance of creatures that would be dangerous to eat, or that might be harmful. Some research suggests there is a genetic predisposition to phobias: identical twins who live apart can independently develop fears such as claustrophobia.

One of the most common is arachnophobia, but sufferers don't all take it as far as Nicola Hearnshaw, who admits that she has invited strangers into her house to remove the creature.

For Nicola, 37, the presence of a tiny money spider is no laughing matter. If she thinks there is one in the house, she will push towels under the doors to keep it away.

'This fear takes over the whole of my life,' said Nicola, a bank clerk from Cheshire. 'I've had people calling at the door to collect charity money, and I've found myself begging them to come in and kill the spider upstairs.' She worries that, by displaying an extreme reaction when even the tiniest creature appears on a web, she might pass on the fear to her young daughter.

The nervous panic that sweeps over Nicola whenever she sees a spider is not uncommon: as many one in four Britons suffers from some kind of similar irrational fear.

Peter Hughes, an airline pilot, runs courses in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow to help thousands of Britons who are terrified of flying. He spends a day helping course members to learn relaxation techniques and talk about their fears, before taking them on a short flight - a technique that works, he says. 'About half our customers suffer from claustrophobia, and the two seem linked,' said Hughes. 'I'm not sure that a pill would work, but I'd be interested to see the results of a trial.'

David Loosmore, a graphic designer from London, would happily be a guinea pig for the pill. He dreads each flight he has to make, and tries to fly only once a year, putting off work-related travel whenever possible.

'In the week before the flight, I start to feel really worried', he said. 'Getting on the plane is hard and, as we approach take-off, I really start to sweat. I have to hold my partner's hand and I feel terrible.

'Strangely enough, a cloudy sky makes me feel safer, because it's as if we are in a giant white cushion. It's when I see the ground below that I feel very sick. I know it's not logical, but it's a very hard feeling to overcome.'

Weird phobias

Xanthophobia - a fear of the colour yellow
Pogonophobia - a fear of beards
Caligynephobia - a fear of beautiful women
Ergasiophobia - a fear of work of any kind
Rupophobia - a fear of dirt
Athazagoraphobia - a fear of forgetting things
Hellenologophobia - a fear of Greek terms
Brontophobia - a fear of lightning
Philophobia - a fear of falling in love
Triskaidekaphobia - a fear of the number 13

Source:Guardian.co.uk

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that control your life.....: The humongous list of phobias that you can have find anywhere shares the same characteristics, like the fear of dentist or doctor. Phobias and Fears are emotional reactions to an uncomfortable situation that causes physical and mental responses. Some of the symptoms that affect all of these weird phobias and fears like fear of success or fear of long words include:
1) Horror, terror, confusion, fear and uncontrollable feelings of panic
2) Unawareness that phobias and fears go beyond.
3) Acceleration of heart beat, extreme sweating, trembling, breathing problems.

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