Related disorders
Dental phobia
Dental phobia is often considered a sub-type of BII phobia, as dental phobics generally fear the aspects of dentistry that are invasive (those commonly involving blood and injections). Some individuals with dental phobia do, however, have fears which center mainly around choking or gagging during a dental procedure.As with many individuals with BII phobia, many dental phobics will attempt to avoid their triggers. This can lead to refusal to seek dental care, potentially contributing to tooth decay and overall poor oral health. Individuals with dental phobia exhibit symptoms similar to those with BII phobia when exposed to a phobic trigger, including syncope and pre-syncope. Hemophobia
BII phobia is closely related to hemophobia (fear of blood), though the two are not the same condition. While the anxieties of BII-phobics tend to extend beyond the fear of blood to ideas of pain, needle breakage inside the body, or needle contact with bones, hemophobics tend to be specifically concerned with exposure to blood. However, in both phobias, individuals experience similar symptoms when exposed to phobic triggers. Causes
The cause of BII phobia is not yet well understood. Various studies indicate an underlying genetic cause, wherein certain genes make an individual more vulnerable to developing specific phobias. The contributing genes have not yet been identified.BII phobia has markedly strong familial aggregation — if present in a family, multiple members are likely to have the phobia.
This aggregation is stronger in BII phobia than in any other known phobic disorder: upwards of 60% of those with the phobia have first-degree relatives who are also BII-phobics. It is believed that this evidences the phobias genetic underpinnings. One study estimated actual heritability of the phobia at 59%.Additionally, a majority of phobics attribute their fear to environmental factors. For instance, some sort of traumatic event involving blood, injury, or injection that conditioned them to fear those particular stimuli. Others self-report being conditioned by seeing another person react to the stimuli with a consistent pattern of fear.It has been theorized that exhibiting vasovagal response when exposed to blood was evolutionarily advantageous, and that this phobia is a vestige of an ancestral evolutionary mechanism. Fainting may have acted as a form of tonic immobility, allowing primitive humans to play dead in a situation where blood was being spilled, perhaps helping them to avoid the attention of enemies. It has also been suggested that the drop in blood pressure associated with seeing blood — as with an individual seeing blood from their own wound — occurs in order to minimize blood loss. Treatments
Individuals typically seek therapeutic treatment for BII phobia in a bid to alleviate symptoms that arise when exposed to a phobic trigger.