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Here, we investigated whether acutely administrated glucocorticoids reduced phobic fear in two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in 40 subjects with social phobia and 20 subjects with spider phobia. In the social phobia study, cortisone (25 mg) administered orally 1 h before a socio-evaluative stressor significantly reduced self-reported fear during the anticipation, exposure, and recovery phase of the stressor. Moreover, the stress-induced release of cortisol in placebo-treated subjects correlated negatively with fear ratings, suggesting that endogenously released cortisol in the context of a phobic situation buffers fear symptoms. In the spider phobia study, repeated oral administration of cortisol (10 mg), but not placebo, 1 h before exposure to a spider photograph induced a progressive reduction of stimulus-induced fear. This effect was maintained when subjects were exposed to the stimulus again 2 days after the last cortisol administration, suggesting that cortisol may also have facilitated the extinction of phobic fear. Cortisol treatment did not reduce general, phobia-unrelated anxiety. In conclusion, the present findings in two distinct types of phobias indicate that glucocorticoid administration reduces phobic fear.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0509184103","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2006,3,27]],"date-time":"2006-03-27T20:34:47Z","timestamp":1143491687000},"page":"5585-5590","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":305,"title":["Glucocorticoids reduce phobic fear in humans"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"103","author":[{"given":"Leila M.","family":"Soravia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"*Institute of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Z\u00fcrich, Z\u00fcrichbergstrasse 43, CH-8044 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Markus","family":"Heinrichs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"*Institute of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Z\u00fcrich, Z\u00fcrichbergstrasse 43, CH-8044 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amanda","family":"Aerni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Psychiatry Research, University of Z\u00fcrich, Lenggstrasse 31, CH-8032 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Caroline","family":"Maroni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Psychiatry Research, University of Z\u00fcrich, Lenggstrasse 31, CH-8032 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gustav","family":"Schelling","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anaesthesiology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, 81377 Munich, Germany; and"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ulrike","family":"Ehlert","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"*Institute of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Z\u00fcrich, Z\u00fcrichbergstrasse 43, CH-8044 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Benno","family":"Roozendaal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3800"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dominique J.-F.","family":"de Quervain","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Psychiatry Research, University of Z\u00fcrich, Lenggstrasse 31, CH-8032 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2006,4,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_1_2","first-page":"1204","volume-title":"Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry","author":"Barlow D. 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