Clinical Characteristics of Flight Phobia*
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Flying for business or personal reasons has become exceedingly common in developed countries like the USA, where other means of transportation are too slow to connect major population centers. But not all actual or intended passengers are happy to fly. Boeing estimates that 20% to 30% of the U.S. population are apprehensive about flying (Dean and Whitaker, 1980). Fear of flying can be a phobia with serious professional or personal consequences. In a recent survey in Sweden (Fredrikson et al.,
METHODS
Individuals were recruited by advertisements in local newspapers to participate in a study of flight phobia. The advertisements for phobic individuals read: “Afraid of flying? Stanford University and VA Medical Center are investigating flight phobia. Limited free treatment.” The advertisements for controls read: “Not afraid of flying? Stanford University and VA Medical Center are looking for controls in an investigation about flight phobia.” Respondents were prescreened by telephone by asking
Onset and Course of Development of Fear of Flying
Table 2 shows that groups did not differ significantly on most characteristics of their flying history. All individuals in the PDA group, significantly more than in the SPF group, reported having had one or more panic attacks during their last flight that fit the DSM-III-R definition of sudden anxiety attacks accompanied by at least four specified symptoms, disregarding whether attacks were truly unexpected. As indicated by the difference between number of flights during lifetime and before
DISCUSSION
The average flight phobic without Panic Disorder (PD) or a history of PD in our sample had her first flight at age 16, and had 10 return flights before she became intensely fearful of flying at the age of 25, developing the fear over 2 years. After becoming phobic she took an average of one round-trip flight per year for the next 16 years and then avoided flying completely for the last 3 years. This average pattern conceals large differences between individuals. For example, some of the
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This research was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs.