Popular Culture
A number of films and TV shows have portrayed individuals with a variety of phobic disorders. Movies
Benchwarmers –  Howie Goodman (Nick Swardson), portrayed as being agoraphobic and heliophobic. Television Shows
Monk – Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is a former homicide detective and a consultant for the San Francisco Police Department. He has an extreme case of OCD and is well known for his various fears and phobias, including (but certainly not limited to) heights, snakes, crowds, glaciers, rodeos, wind, and milk. Shameless (American TV Series) – Sheila Jackson (Joan Cusack) has agoraphobia and mysophobia (fear of germs). Research directions
Before the development of pharmacotherapy, the treatment of phobias and mental health disorders relied solely on therapy such as CBT. Although therapy can be incredibly effective for many, it does not always achieve the desired effect. Interventional psychiatry is an additional branch in medicine that has expanded treatment options, and further research continues to explore effectiveness and applications. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) are two examples of device-based interventions widely utilized. In terms of use in treating phobias and anxiety disorders as a whole, TMS is being explored as an augmentation option for those who do not have the desired response to other therapeutic options or side effects from medications. A majority of research has been conducted exploring the use of TMS in PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder.
It presents with similar symptoms of decreased fear and aggression but with the addition of the inability to recognize emotional expressions, especially angry or fearful faces.The amygdalas role in learned fear includes interactions with other brain regions in the neural circuit of fear. While damage in the amygdala can inhibit its ability to recognize fearful stimuli, other areas such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala can affect the regions ability to not only become conditioned to fearful stimuli but to extinguish them eventually. Through receiving stimulus info, the basolateral nuclei undergo synaptic changes that allow the amygdala to develop a conditioned response to fearful stimuli. Damage to this area, therefore, have been shown to disrupt the acquisition of learned responses to fear. Likewise, damage in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (the area responsible for monitoring the amygdala) has been shown to slow down the speed of extinguishing a learned fear response and how effective the extinction is. This suggests there is a pathway or circuit among the amygdala and nearby cortical areas that process emotional stimuli and influence emotional expression, all of which can be disrupted when damage occurs. Diagnosis
It is recommended that the terms distress and impairment take into account the context of the persons environment during diagnosis. The DSM-IV-TR states that if a feared stimulus, whether it be an object or a situation, is absent entirely in an environment, a diagnosis cannot be made.