A comparison of subliminal, supraliminal and faded phobic cine-films in the treatment of agoraphobia.

Thirty-two agoraphobic patients were randomly allocated to four groups and treated by repeated exposure to cine-films at twice weekly intervals for three weeks. Three of the groups saw the same cine-film, comprising a range of agoraphobic scenes, and a control group saw a potter working on his wheel. The three groups seeing the phobic cine-film included one who viewed it at an illumination level below the visual threshold (subliminal group), one seeing it under normal conditions (supraliminal group) and one which underwent graduated exposure from subliminal to supraliminal viewing levels as the study proceeded (faded group). The faded group showed significantly greater improvement than the control and supraliminal groups and this improvement was maintained over twelve weeks.