Optimizing exposure therapy with an inhibitory retrieval approach and the OptEx Nexus

Abstract

Research from recent decades has highlighted the distinction between excitatory and inhibitory Pavlovian learning mechanisms. Based on this distinction, state-of-the-art exposure therapy for anxiety disorders emphasizes inhibitory learning and retrieval as its primary mechanism for long-term reduction in fear, anxiety, and avoidance. Seven years ago, we (Craske, et al., 2014) summarized exposure therapy from an inhibitory learning approach, focusing on eight exposure optimization strategies. Here, we update this model based on recent work and describe how to conduct exposure therapy from an inhibitory retrieval approach and encourage further empirical investigation of its basic premises. To this end, we guide the reader in the use of the OptEx Nexus: a clinician's tool for conducting exposure therapy from an inhibitory retrieval approach. We categorize exposure strategies as fundamental (expectancy violation, attention to feared stimulus/situation, removal of safety signals, and mental rehearsal after exposure), advanced (deepened extinction, occasional reinforced extinction), and promoting generalization of learning (retrieval cues, multiple contexts, stimulus variability, positive affect). We additionally discuss extinction learning with distal future feared outcomes, the role of avoidance, and alternative models/approaches to exposure therapy, including counterconditioning, novelty-enhanced extinction, latent cause models, and reconsolidation. Lastly, we illustrate clinical implementation via vignettes of exposure therapy from an inhibitory retrieval approach (see Supplemental materials).