A therapist helps a patient with agoraphobia confront feared situations in a systematic, hierarchical manner while maintaining a relaxed physiological state. This technique is best described as:

• A Flooding (implosion therapy)
• B Systematic desensitisation (Wolpe) ✓
• C Response prevention
• D Modelling (vicarious learning)

Explanation

Systematic desensitisation, developed by Joseph Wolpe, uses reciprocal inhibition — pairing a relaxation response with progressively anxiety-provoking stimuli presented in a hierarchy from least to most feared (anxiety hierarchy). The patient cannot be simultaneously relaxed and anxious. It is highly effective for specific phobias and agoraphobia. Flooding involves immediate maximal exposure without gradual hierarchy; response prevention is used in OCD (preventing compulsive rituals); modelling involves observational learning without direct exposure.

Reference: Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 11th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.