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Most people suffer from a form of fear of medical procedures during their life. There are many different aspects of this fear and not everyone has every part. Some of these parts include fear of surgery, fear of dental work and fear of doctors (involving fear of needles). These fears are often overlooked, but when a patient has one to the extreme it can be very damaging to their health. Formally, medical fear is defined (by Steward and Steward, see Further reading) as "any experience that involves medical personnel or procedures involved in the process of evaluating or modifying health status in traditional health care settings". ==Classification== Fear of medical procedures can be classified under a broader category of “Blood, Injection, and Injury Phobias”. This is one of five subtypes that classify specific phobias.〔Specific Phobias: Clinical Applications of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy pg 5〕 A specific phobia is defined as a “marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence (or anticipation) of a specific object or situation.”〔Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994)〕〔Phobic Disorders and Panic in Adults: A guide to Assessment and Treatment pg 79〕 Often these fears begin to appear in childhood, around the age of 5 to 9.〔 It seems to be a natural feeling to become squeamish at the sight of blood, injury or gross deformity,〔Fears, Phobias, and Rituals: Panic, Anxiety and their Disorders pg 376〕 but many overcome these fears by the time they reach adulthood. Those who do not are more likely to avoid medical and dental procedures necessary to maintain health, jobs, etc.〔 Research shows that when people encounter something that they have a specific phobia of many of them have a feeling of disgust〔Phobic Disorders and Panic in Adults: A guide to Assessment and Treatment pg 82 〕 which makes them not want to come near or experience that which is disgusting to them. This feeling of disgust, especially in the Blood, Injection, and Injury Phobias seems to be passed down in families.〔 Women have been known to avoid becoming pregnant because it requires blood and medical examinations that they would rather avoid.〔Fears, Phobias, and Rituals: Panic, Anxiety and their Disorders pg 377 〕 Also, most phobic people have an increased heart rate upon encountering the thing they fear, but Blood, Injection, Injury phobic people also seem to have an increase of fainting after the initial speeding up of heart rate. Their heart rate will go up and then slow again, leading to nausea, sweating, pallor and fainting.〔 This fainting can also lead to seizures〔Fears, Phobias, and Rituals: Panic, Anxiety and their Disorders pg 378〕 making life very difficult for those who have this fear. However only 4.5% of individuals who have this phobia as a child will have this fear their entire lifetime.〔Phobic Disorders and Panic in Adults: A guide to Assessment and Treatment pg 84〕 For those who do experience this phobia in an extreme manner, specific coping treatments have been found to help them. Biological treatments, like medications used for other anxiety ailments, are generally found to be inappropriate for fear of medical procedures or other specific phobias. Psychological treatments are the treatment of choice because they are more accurate at addressing the problem. Some of these treatments used especially for fear of medical procedures include, Exposure-Based Treatments, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and Applied Tension to react against fainting.〔Phobic Disorders and Panic in Adults: A guide to Assessment and Treatment pg 98-102〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fear of medical procedures」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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