Zisler Eva M, Metzner Michael S, Voderholzer Ulrich, Kolar David R
Department of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
J Psychiatr Res. 2025 Sep;189:285-290. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.06.028. Epub 2025 Jun 17.
Emetophobia refers to a fear that oneself or others might vomit and is classified as a specific phobia in current diagnostic manuals. However, it is a relatively unknown and understudied mental disorder. Although it has been speculated that emetophobia might differ from other specific phobias (e.g., in terms of severity), studies on this are virtually non-existent. Thus, this retrospective study analyzed data at admission and discharge from 70 persons with emetophobia and 40 persons with other specific phobias who received a cognitive behavioral therapy-oriented, multimodal inpatient treatment (76.4 % female; mean age 22.7 years, SD = 12.4). Nearly 80 % of persons with emetophobia were female, more than half were adolescents and underweight, and the most common comorbid mental disorders were other anxiety disorders and depression. Compared to inpatients with other specific phobias, persons with emetophobia were younger, had a lower body weight, had higher phobic anxiety, and reported lower life satisfaction at admission. Across both groups, body weight increased with a small effect size and anxiety-related, depressive, and general psychopathology decreased and life satisfaction increased with medium-to-large effect sizes. In conclusion, the current study replicates findings about certain features of persons with emetophobia and is the first study that documents differences between persons with emetophobia and persons with other specific phobias, indicating that emetophobia partially represents a more severe type of specific phobia. Despite these differences, persons with emetophobia and persons with other specific phobias achieve similar and substantial symptom reductions during a multimodal inpatient treatment.
恐吐症是指害怕自己或他人呕吐，在当前的诊断手册中被归类为特定恐惧症。然而，它是一种相对鲜为人知且研究不足的精神障碍。尽管有人推测恐吐症可能与其他特定恐惧症不同（例如在严重程度方面），但几乎不存在关于此的研究。因此，这项回顾性研究分析了70名患有恐吐症的患者和40名患有其他特定恐惧症的患者在入院和出院时的数据，这些患者接受了以认知行为疗法为导向的多模式住院治疗（76.4%为女性；平均年龄22.7岁，标准差 = 12.4）。近80%的恐吐症患者为女性，一半以上是青少年且体重过轻，最常见的共病精神障碍是其他焦虑症和抑郁症。与患有其他特定恐惧症的住院患者相比，患有恐吐症的患者更年轻，体重更低，恐惧焦虑更高，且入院时报告的生活满意度更低。在两组中，体重有小效应量的增加，与焦虑相关的、抑郁的和一般精神病理学有中到大效应量的下降，生活满意度有中到大效应量的增加。总之，当前研究重复了关于恐吐症患者某些特征的发现，并且是第一项记录恐吐症患者与其他特定恐惧症患者之间差异的研究，表明恐吐症部分代表了一种更严重类型的特定恐惧症。尽管存在这些差异，但患有恐吐症的患者和患有其他特定恐惧症的患者在多模式住院治疗期间实现了相似且显著的症状减轻。
