Imaginal exposure for anger reduction in adult outpatients: a pilot study

Although exposure procedures have been widely accepted in the treatment of anxiety disorders., they have rarely been applied to the treatment of anger . The present paper describes an initial attempt to apply an imaginal expos ure strategy to adult outpatients (n = 6) referred for anger management. Th is investigation reflects an empirical clinical practice approach rather th an a controlled outcome study. Thus, this paper provides a clinical descrip tion of the imaginal exposure program, pre-to-posttest effectiveness data, an exploration of habituation patterns for each participant, and 15-month f ollow-up data from several patients. In considering the impact of the inter vention, statistically significant change was found on most anger variables , the majority of patients met a criteria for clinically significant improv ement on important indices of anger, and treatment effect sizes were large and compared favorably to previously studied interventions. Process data re vealed a consistent habituation effect, across patients and anger stimuli, in response to repeated exposure practice, Participants' satisfaction was a lso positive. Finally, statistically significant and clinically meaningful change was evident at 15-months following the intervention. Data from the c urrent pilot project are encouraging and hopefully will stimulate more meth odologically rigorous clinical trials, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.