Everyone Healthy Library
Agoraphobia
Condition / disease reference page from the Everyone Healthy database.
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Connected health information
Explore this condition in a clear order
Condition overview
Attributes
Commonalityis common
Incidenceis approximately 1 in 29 people
Linked signs and symptoms
8Each sign/symptom opens its own page and links back to related conditions.
Linked drugs / medications
0No linked drugs are listed yet.
Treatments, therapies and supportive options
26Grouped by treatment type. These are educational database links, not personal treatment recommendations. Evidence labels are shown only where stored in the EH database.
Behavioural changes
1Counselling and support
12Alternative and complementary therapies
9- Aromatherapy
- Creative Art Therapy (Expressive Therapy)No Recommendation(Very Low Evidence)
- HypnosisStrongly in Favour(Moderate Evidence)
- Image TherapyNo Recommendation(Low Evidence)
- Meditation
- Relaxation Techniques
- St Johns Wort (Goatweed, Tipton Weed, Hypericum Perforatum)No Recommendation(Very Low Evidence)
- Tai Chi
- Yoga
Alternative medicine
1Alternative therapies
1Linked diagnostic tests and investigations
4These are pulled from both EH diagnostic-test link tables, including the older large test-link table.
Biological markers/agents
0This visual map shows biological markers/agents reported as increased or decreased with this condition. These are educational relationships only; test results must be interpreted by a qualified clinician because ranges vary by lab, method, age, sex and clinical context.
No biological marker/agent links are listed yet for this condition.
Introduction / full article
Agoraphobia
Risk Factors
Stress and negative life events or experiences, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance abuse
Efficacy of Alternative and Other Treatments According to GRADE* Ranking:
St John's Wort (Goatweed, tipton weed, Hypericum Perforatum) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]:
Please note, this management does NOT treat the condition itself. It may mildly help with some of the symptoms, and even then has insufficient evidence to back up this claim at present.
Recommendation: No recommendation (There is insufficient evidence to support claims that St Johns Wort helps to treat social phobias. There are currenly studies being done to further research these claims.)
Grade of Evidence: very low quality of evidence
Creative Art Therapy (Expressive Therapy)
Recomendation: no recommendation (there is insufficient positive evidence showing Expressive Therapy helping to reduce phobias)
Grade of Evidence: very low quality of evidence
Hypnosis:
Recommendation: stongly in favor (Hypnosis is used by therapists to help eliminate their phobias or their effects)
Grade of Evidence: moderate quality of evidence
Image Therapy:
Recommendation: no recommendation (There is insufficient evidence to show that Image Therapy helps reduce or treat phobias)
Grade of Evidence: low quality of evidence
Neuro-Linguistic Programming:
Recommendation: no recommendation (although a small study has shown that NLP may help with phobias, the methods used have been found to be unreliable)
Grade of Evidence: low quality of evidence
* www.gradeworkinggroup.org
Summary References
Treatments:
1. Ades T, Alteri R, Gansler T, Yeargin P, "Complete Guide to Complimentary & Alternative Cancer Therapies", American Cancer Society, Atlanta USA, 2009
2. http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/st-johns-wort
3. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-stjohnswort.html
4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18843608
5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11939866
6. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/stjohnswort/ataglance.htm
7. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/stjohnswort/sjw-and-depression.htm
8. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression/how-is-depression-detected-and-treated.shtml
9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11939872
10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12132963
11. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16423519
12. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299/22/2633