Falling short of fear with hormone treatment

London: For millions of Britons, the mere thought of climbing a ladder or peering over a cliff is enough to set hearts racing and palms sweating.

But now scientists have come to the rescue with a pill to treat an irrational fear of heights.

The capsule — which contains the stress hormone cortisol — works with traditional therapy to help people forget what makes them frightened.

In tests, three sessions of treatment were enough to reduce panic caused by heights. Fear of high places, or acrophobia, is one of the most common phobias. It can be treated by exposing people to heights, or by recreating the experience of being high up using virtual reality glasses.

However, the technique is rarely fully successful. The new method combines this "exposure therapy" with a dose of cortisol, the hormone released by the body in times of stress.

The international team of scientists tested the effects of a cortisol pill on 40 people suffering from acrophobia. Volunteers were either given cortisol or a placebo an hour before they began exposure treatment.

At the end they were asked to gauge how scared they were using a questionnaire. Those taking cortisol were noticeably less fearful, it is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.