Fight or Flight: There's More to the Story

Exposure to a fearful situation stimulates the release of cortisol from the adrenal cortex. But does the released cortisol then have any effect on the emotional experience of fear?

A new study has found that subjects with either social phobia or spider phobia who were treated with glucocorticoids actually experienced less fear when confronted with a fearful situation. And in untreated subjects, the more cortisol they naturally released, the less was their experience of fear.

Soravia, Heinrichs and Aerni, et al reporting in the April 6, 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied 40 subjects with social phobia and 20 subjects with spider phobia. Subjects with social phobia were given cortisone (25 mg.), one hour before performing a speech and an arithmetic task in front of an audience and a video camera. Subjects with spider phobia were given hydrocortisone (10 mg.), one hour before being shown a color picture of a spider. This was repeated six different times over a two-week period for the spider-phobic subjects.

Interestingly, two days after the end of the two-week treatment period, the spider-phobic subjects continued to show less fear. In light of these findings, the authors suggest the possibility that glucocorticoids may be a helpful adjunct treatment for phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder.