[Examination of shortened version of spider phobia and snake phobia questionnaire on Hungarian sample].

INTRODUCTION: One of the most common mental disorders is the specific phobia. Within this, the prevalence of animal phobia, such as the fear from spiders and snakes, is very high. In case of irrational fears, beyond the change in behavior (for example avoidance of the situation), a specific brain activation pattern can also be observed. However, if animal phobia is detected, it can be treated through several different therapeutic methods. There is a great need for reliable questionnaires to examine the subtypes of animal phobia. The SNAQ-12 and SPQ-12 can be used for this purpose, furthermore these questionnaires have good psychometric properties and clinical cut-off scores. The aim of the present study is therefore to examine the psychometric properties of the two questionnaires' Hungarian version.

METHOD AND RESULTS: The SNAQ-12 (12 item long Snake Questionnaire, SNAQ) and the SPQ-12 (12 item long Spider Phobia Questionnaire), according to the measured sample (1071 Hungarian subject) have excellent psychometric properties (Snake Questionnaire: Cronbach alpha=0.912. Spider Questionnaire: Cronbach alpha=0.909), and are suitable for reliable testing of fear from snake and spider.

CONCLUSION: The questionnaires are useful in phobia related researches and studies and can promote the clinical work, to recognize phobias and to monitor the effectiveness of therapy.