BLOOD-INJURY-INJECTION PHOBIA AND DENTAL PHOBIA

The present study was carried out to explore the relation between BII phobia and dental phobia. An additional aim was to determine the faint ing tendency of dental phobics and BII phobics during an invasive trea tment procedure. Participants were 63 patients undergoing treatment in a dental fear clinic, and 173 patients undergoing dental surgery in a university hospital. They completed measures on fears of particular m edical and dental stimuli, fainting history, general trait anxiety, de ntal anxiety, BII anxiety, BII avoidance, and a questionnaire aimed to define a phobia based on DSM-IV criteria. Immediately after treatment information was obtained on exposures to blood or injections, state a nxiety, and feelings of faintness during treatment. The results did no t indicate any significant relationship between measures of dental anx iety and BII anxiety or BII avoidance. However, 57% of the dental phob ic patients could also be classified as BII phobic. The proportion of dental phobics who reported fainting episodes in their past was simila r to that of the BII phobics (37%), but none of the participants faint ed during treatment. It is concluded that, albeit the level of co-occu rrence for both types of phobias is high, dental phobia should be cons idered as a specific phobia, independent of the BII subtype within DSM -IV. Further, the findings are inconsistent with the notion that indiv iduals with BII phobia have a remarkably high tendency to faint in the presence of their phobic stimuli. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.