Effectivenss of automated desensitization with normal volunteers and phobic patients.

Compared the effects of live and automated desensitization on 21 clinical patients and 21 college students reporting various fears. Taking the sample as a whole, those subjected to live and to automated desensitization improved more than controls but were not significantly different from each other. Further analysis showed, however, that the 2 treated groups of college students improved more than student controls under both treatment conditions; neither of the treated groups of patients differed significantly from the patient control group. It is noted that the difference between live and automated treatment may be less than the difference between the time-limited, single-technique approach used in analog studies and the more varied, responsive treatment employed by clinical behavior therapists. (French summary) (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)