Can fear be cured? What the scientific studies show

Here’s the short version of what happens: fear. The most primal, and elemental, of all our emotions; our “fight or flight” instinct, honed over tens of thousands of years as hunter-gatherers. It alerts us to immediate dangers. It creates memories that allow us to remember dangerous things. It reminds us of the consequences of doing something foolhardy. It is, as Gavin de Becker describes in his book The Gift of Fear, “a brilliant internal guardian that warns you of hazards and guides you through risky situations”.

So it stands to reason that scientists are determined to fiddle with it. The problem, as they see it, is an overabundance of fear in Western society. An estimated 3.6 per cent of the UK – around 2.2million people – suffer from anxiety disorders, a four-fold increase in four years. In America, it’s 18 per cent, or 57million people. These can range from common trepidations, such as heights or enclosed spaces, to severe cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Either way, these kinds of fear can prevent any meaningful life. And, with traditional remedies, such as psychotherapy or anti-anxiety drugs like Valium, enjoying poor success rates, scientists are looking for new ways to “cure” it.

“If you’re, say, frightened of heights,” says Prof Nutt, “then current exposure therapy means taking you

up a tall building – or via virtual reality – and repeating it until the fear subsides. The new drugs not only speed this process up, but make it more permanent. So people can overwrite their fear memories more quickly, replacing a bad experience with a different version that doesn’t ruin their lives.”

Another study by Israeli scientists has found that patients injected with a high dose of cortisol immediately after a traumatic experience suffer far less lasting psychological damage – suggesting it should form part of emergency treatment after, say, a car crash. Another study of UK dentists found that simple acupuncture successfully “cured” odontophobia (extreme fear of dentists). And, earlier this year, researchers at the Lieber Institute in Baltimore announced that low doses of psilocybin – the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms – had been found to “turn off” conditioned fear in mice. The hope is this might lead to another potential cure for human PTSD.