ABSTRACT
A recent review showed that there are approximately 50 facilities with comprehensive programmes for treating fear of flying throughout the Western world (van Gerwen and Diekstra, 2000). However, little is known about the effectiveness of these programmes in clinical practice. Available outcome studies have demonstrated that interventions may effectively reduce fear of flying (Greco, 1989; Howard, Murphy and Clarke, 1983; Roberts, 1989; Walder et al., 1987). Most reports on fear of flying interventions are individual case studies (Canton-Dutari, 1974; Deyoub and Epstein, 1977; Diment, 1981; Karoly, 1974; Ladouceur, 1982; Rothbaum et al., 1996; Scrignar, Swanson and Bloom, 1973; Sidley, 1990), although most facilities offer group therapy programmes. Evaluations of group treatment programmes are usually uncontrolled studies involving relatively small groups (Aitken and Benson, 1984; Denholz, Hall and Mann, 1978; Ekeberg, Seeberg and Ellertsen, 1990; Williams, 1982). Furthermore, most of these studies investigate only a specific part of the treatment, like exposure (McCarthy and Craig, 1995; Meldman and Hatch, 1969; Ost, Brandberg and Alm, 1997; Roberts, 1989) or cognitive training (e.g. Borill and Foreman, 1996). There is only one controlled study with a nontreatment group (Howard et al., 1983 ), which compares systematic desensitisation, flooding, implosion and relaxation. This present study is unique because it is one of the few that examines the effectiveness of a comprehensive group treatment programme for fear of flying in actual clinical practice (Sederer and Dickey, 1996).
