FearFighter Index
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What is FearFighter
Introduction to FearFighter
How does FearFighter work?
How can FearFighter help you?
Advantages of using FearFighter
Real life stories
CCBT Company Information
Frequently Asked Questions

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What is FearFighter?

FearFighter is a new method for delivering CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) via a computer (standalone PC or internet). Research has shown that FearFighter improves anxious or phobic patients about as much as face to face therapy. FearFighter is also more readily available and more cost- and time- efficient.

FearFighter is an online therapy and can be accessed from home, the office or even the local library. This convenience and confidentiality provides a solution for many sufferers who may be concerned about the stigma associated with seeing a therapist. Taking only three months to complete, with minimal telephone support through the process, FearFighter provides clinically proven improvements for sufferers with close to zero computer skills.

Approved by The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and included by the NHS in the guidance for the treatment of Anxiety and Phobia, FearFighter is accessed by referral from your GP, Health Worker or in some cases directly via self referral.

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Introduction to FearFighter

FearFighter is delivered over the Internet with the same efficiency as existing CBT services. Patients are given a password. With it they are encouraged to use FearFighter at home or anywhere else linked to the internet over about 10 weeks as often as they wish but for at least once a week. FearFighter helps patients identify specific problems, develop and work on realistic treatment goals, and monitor achievement of those goals' by repeated self-exposure. They also get scheduled brief helpline support to a total of one hour over 10 weeks.

Developed by Stuart Toole and Prof. Isaac Marks, FearFighter has been importantly acknowledged by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) as being clinically proven as effective for the treatment of panic/anxiety and phobias. FearFighter has been successfully trialled and purchased by the Institute of Psychiatry London, West London Mental Health Trust, Hillingdon PCT, City and Hackney PCT and Office of the Chief Scientist in Scotland for use in the Scottish Highlands.

FearFighter is based on over 20 years of development and has been extensively tested in clinical randomised control trials (RCTs) and open studies at the Institute of Psychiatry and Imperial College. It is the most fully-realised evidence-based form of computer-aided cognitive behaviour therapy (CCBT). It has been designed to aid the treatment of sufferers from panic/anxiety and phobias and can also help where anxiety is co-morbid with depression or obsessive compulsive disorders.

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How does FearFighter work?

FearFighter helps you to work out exactly what brings on your fear, thus you can learn how to face your fear until it subsides. This is called "exposure therapy", i.e, you face your fears for long enough to get used to them.

But you may be thinking " But how does it really work?"

FearFighter consists of 9 steps that needs to be worked through one by one in order to obtain the greatest benefits. Like a Therapist, FearFighter asks you to return every week to report on how you've been doing and you can ask it to print out questionnaires and graphs of your own progress. It guides users through CBT as much as a therapist does and the following describes the 9 steps that a user must accomplish for greater benefits.

Step 1: Welcome to FearFighter
Introduces the system, asks users to rate their problem on the Fear Questionnaire (FQ) and Work & Social Adjustment Scale (WSA), and asks about suicidal feelings and alcohol misuse.

Step 2: How to Beat Fear
Explains the principles of CBT with case examples. Patients are asked to keep a daily record of the triggers of their phobia.

Step 3: Problem Sorting
Helps patients identify the triggers for their fear using the information they provide, shows them scenarios relevant to their problem, and helps users to personalise their triggers and rate them on a 0-8 scale.

Step 4: How to Get a Helper
Explains the value of recruiting a CBT co-therapist and gives hints on how to find one.

Step 5: Setting Goals
Guides the user through the process of setting good goals and tests them. Users record and rate these on the system and can print personalised homework diaries.

Step 6: Managing anxiety
Offers a menu of coping strategies for use during CBT homework.

Step 7: Rehearsing Goals
Guides patients on how to practise personal coping strategies during both imagined and live CBT homework.

Step 8: Carrying On
Reviews progress with the help of graphs, allows new goals to be devised, and offers feedback and advice.

Step 9: Troubleshooting
Offers a menu of tips on overcoming common sticking points in treatment.

Across Steps 1-9:
FF includes the Computerised Outcome Resource Monitor system to yield progress data and graphs for individual FF users (linked to personal identifiers only locally, not centrally)

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How can FearFighter help you?

Patients with anxiety disorders use many mental healthcare resources, since such disorders are effectively treated by self-exposure therapy guided by a clinician. However, the waiting list for these services are very long and suitably trained therapists are scarce. Therefore, many are still at present untreated.


You may have found that when you avoid things that make you panic or feel uncomfortable, the situation tends to get worse and worse. FearFighter can help by teaching you how to face your fear until you adapt and no longer want to run away from it. FearFighter helps you to learn to face the things that make you panic, such that with time, you'll find that one by one they'll get easier.


Studies have shown that self-exposure therapy guided mainly by computer is as effective as a traditional clinician-guided therapy and both are superior to relaxation to improve phobia/panic.


FearFighter has been tested with over 400 people in 4 clinical trials including a Randomised Control Trial and has been found to be as effective as the best CBT Therapists.

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Advantages of using FearFighter

Why do patients choose FearFighter?

Real life stories

FearFighter has changed the lives of many people.


"I've always panicked in crowds and after a really bad panic, I stopped going anywhere. I thought going out might bring it on again.

After my mum died 4 years ago, things got a lot worse and now I can't leave the house at all. My brother gets all my shopping for me and I spend my days watching TV and wishing I could go out.

Since I started using FearFighter (FF), my anxieties have gradually started to recede. Now, I do my own shopping and always leave home everyday, alone, for at least an hour".

- Margaret -

"I have always feared public places such as swimming pools, cinemas and museums but it got worse 4 years ago. I started feeling very down and was always worried. Public places made me feel trapped especially if I couldn't see an exit or there was a lot of noise.

I began to avoid anything that frightened me. Being a junior school teacher, this made my job difficult because I kept making excuses when it was time for me to take children swimming or on school outings.

Within 4 months of using FearFighter, I have done everything that a school teacher would do without great anxiety."

- Diane -

"I have feared going in lifts since the age of 11 when I was stuck in one for three hours. I now work as a bank clerk and feel quite restricted at work since my fear forces me to work on the lower floors of the building.

Whenever I have to go to the top I use the stairs - walking up 15 stories can take a long time! Luckily my bosses know about my problem and are sympathetic as they know I'm not a time waster.

FearFighter has helped me to face my fear and within two months, I have asked my boss to transfer me to an office on the 14th floor so that I could use the lift every day!!"

- Bill -

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CCBT Company Information

CCBT Ltd has become a leader in the field of computer-aided cognitive behaviour therapy (CCBT). CCBT Ltd is at the forefront for providing psychiatric care for common neuroses and the opportunity now exists to exploit the growing commercial potential of this form of treatment.


CCBT Ltd's first product "FearFighter" was clinically tested and accredited by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), as being clinically proven to be effective for the treatment of panic/anxiety and phobias, the only product to achieve this for such problems. In addition, CCBT Ltd now has a license for two more complementary CBT products, COPE and OCFighter, that are included in the second 2004 NICE Technical Appraisal.

Go to CCBT

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What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)?

It is an enduringly effective alternative treatment for sufferers of common mental health problems irrespective of ability, culture, race, gender or sexual preference. CBT therapists are usually psychologists, doctors, nurses, social workers and counsellors. CBT helps sufferers achieve desired change by focussing on current difficulties to identify personalised, time-limited therapy goals and strategies which are continually monitored and evaluated. CBT usually improves common neuroses enduringly after 6-12 sessions with a clinician.

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What is Computer-aided Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CCBT)?

This is a new method for delivering CBT via a computer (standalone PC or internet). Research has shown that CCBT improves anxious/depressed patients about as much as face to face therapy, but is also more cost- and time- efficient without any side effects. It provides a solution for many sufferers who often prefer its convenience, confidentiality and reduction of stigma.

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Is CCBT effective?

Yes. Extensive research has found that CBT/CCBT is effective for the alleviation of many problems such as:

anxiety & panic disorders

phobias (e.g. agoraphobia, social phobia, specific phobia)

obsessive-compulsive disorder

post traumatic stress disorder

depression

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What is FearFighter?

FearFighter (www.fearfighter.com) is an Internet delivered course of therapy which aids in the treatment of patients suffering from panic/anxiety & phobia and can offer help where anxiety is comorbid with depression. It requires 1 hour of support for a course of treatment.

FearFighter helps you to work out exactly what brings on your fear, thus you can learn how to face your fear until it subsides. This is called "exposure therapy", i.e., you face your fears for long enough to get used to them.

It provides treatment with the same efficacy as existing CBT services and is a 10-session practised-based self-help treatment system. During the 10 sessions, FearFighter (FF) allows patients to identify specific problems and to develop realistic treatment goals.

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Has FearFighter been clinically proven to be effective for the treatment of panic and phobias?

Yes, FearFighter has undergone extensive testing and trial pilots involving 700 patients and has received an endorsement by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) as being proven to be clinically effective as well as cost effective. Recently in August, in the NICE Final Appraisal Determination (FAD), FearFighter has been recommended as an option for delivering CBT in the management of panic and phobia. A copy of the NICE FAD can be found on the following website address: http://www.nice.org.uk/pdf/CCBT_FAD.pdf. Furthermore, when the NICE guidelines will be published at the end of the year, FearFighter should be available to all doctors who want to prescribe it.

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If I would like to try FearFighter, what happens next?

FF is suitable for patients suffering from panic, anxiety or any phobia and often patients who have chronic somatisation may also be helped.

In order to access FearFighter, you will need to book an appointment with a trained FF Supporter such as a practice nurse or graduate worker. He/she will go through a quick screening questionnaire with you to see if FearFighter would be right for you. Any questions you have will be answered. If both of you agree that FearFighter would be helpful for you, you will then be initiated and shown how FearFighter works. Little or no experience of using computers or a person’s age has not seemed to interfere with people’s use of FearFighter so don’t worry if you haven’t used a computer before.

Then what?

You will then be issued a username and password so that you can log in to FearFighter, once a week, through the Internet. From then onwards, you can either access FearFighter from the surgery/home or from any PC having internet access. FearFighter will help you overcome your anxieties or phobias. In order to achieve this, you will need to do your homework for 4/5 hours per week.

Your nurse will also support you in case of difficulties, which on average is 30 minutes to one hour for the 12 week

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First time User

1. How do I sign up for FearFighter (FF) Treatment?

You will need to contact your GP, who will provide you with your login details (a userID and password). These details will allow you to login in and use FearFighter.

2. How do I log in to FearFighter (FF) for the first time?

You can access FearFighter (FF) from any page by locating the Login to FearFighter button on the far right . Click on the button. You will be directed to the login page. Type in your userID and password, that were given to you, where indicated.

The welcome page will be displayed upon successful completion of the login sequence. If you still cannot login, please contact your nurse.

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Password

1. What should I do if I forget my password?

For security purposes, you will need to contact your surgery or clinic.

2. Does my password expire?

Yes, after 13 weeks from first login.

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Support

1. During what hours can I phone CCBT Ltd for technical support?

You can call CCBT LTD, Monday to Friday from 0900-1700.

2. Is there a fee for telephone technical support?

This is provided free of charge

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Contact Us


CCBT Ltd
Tudor Court
14 Edward Street
Birmingham
B1 2RX

TEL: 0121 233 2873
Fax: 0121 233 4973

enquiries@fearfighter.com

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