It’s safe to say that tests are still in their early stages but it’s also safe to say that scientists are quite a bit closer to helping people overcome their fear of heights. They have discovered that by giving people a tablet of the stress hormone cortisol, they can help reduce their phobia.

Acrophobia, or the fear of heights, triggers a sense of panic when a person is at a certain height and it’s not the same as vertigo, which causes a feeling of spinning and dizziness.

Common reactions include descending immediately, crawling on all fours and kneeling or the otherwise lowering of the body into a hunched position, much like early man walked.

Cortisol is a hormone made by the body’s adrenal glands and some ailments like arthritis, skin disorders and asthma can be treated with synthesised cortisol, called cortisone or corticosteroids.

Scientists at Basel University in Switzerland and Dr Dominique De Quervain, a neuroscientist, suggest cortisol can enhance “exposure therapy” to reduce fear of heights.

Exposure therapy consists of counselling the fear through repeated, controlled, exposures to fearful situations that gradually dampens their fright.

Tests on 40 patients found those given cortisol in combination with behavioural therapy dramatically reduced their loathing of high places.

Half these participants were given the drug and the other half a placebo an hour before being subjected to a virtual-reality outdoor elevator ride.

Subjects receiving cortisol showed a significantly greater reduction in acute anxiety during virtual exposure to a phobic situation at post-treatment and a significantly smaller exposure-induced increase in skin conductance level at follow-up.

The present findings indicate that the administration of cortisol can enhance extinction-based psychotherapy.

Principally, it works, and we should expect further research into this with the possibility of seeing such a pill on the market sometime in the future.

[Source: Telegraph]