Treatment of dog phobia in young people with autism and severe intellectual disabilities: an extended case series

The psychological treatment of anxiety disorders in people with autism has usually been studied in populations with good speech and communication skills. For people with intellectual disability, research participants were mostly those with moderate intellectual disability, who were usually able to understand spoken language. Patients with limited communication skills (including those with comorbid autism and severe intellectual disability) have been little studied. This paper reports the outcomes of behavioral treatment of phobia of dogs (cynophobia) in 9 individuals with autism, severe intellectual disability and limited communication skills. We describe the methods and the results of the interventions with a view to making recommendations about interventions which might be used in more carefully controlled trials for populations with limited communication skills.