Ruining the surprise: The effect of safety information before extinction on return of fear.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In psychoeducation before exposure treatment patients are sometimes provided with information about the (low) probability that the feared outcome would occur. Since it has been proposed in the literature that this might have adverse effects, the current study investigated the effect of providing participants with this type of safety information on return of fear.

METHOD: In an ABA-renewal paradigm, participants in the experimental group were instructed between acquisition and extinction that the probability of US-occurrence would be extremely small in the remainder of the experiment. Participants in the control group did not receive this information.

RESULTS: Less return of fear in US-expectancy ratings was observed in participants who received the safety information.

LIMITATIONS: We failed to find successful acquisition in the skin-conductance data, which prevented us from interpreting the results of this outcome measure.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that providing safety information is not deleterious for the effects of exposure and can even be beneficial for its effects. However, further clinical research is needed.