According to the

DSM-IV The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langua ...

classification of

mental disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

s, the injury phobia is a

specific phobia Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder, characterized by an extreme, unreasonable, and irrational fear associated with a specific object, situation, or concept which poses little or no actual danger. Specific phobia can lead to avoidance of the o ...

blood/injection/injury type Blood-injection-injury (BII) type phobia is a type of specific phobia characterized by the display of excessive, irrational fear in response to the sight of blood, injury, or injection, or in anticipation of an injection, injury, or exposure to bl ...

. It is an abnormal, pathological

fear Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...

of having an

injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, o ...

."Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology" by

Theodore Millon Theodore Millon () (August 18, 1928 – January 29, 2014) was an American psychologist known for his work on personality disorders. He founded the ''Journal of Personality Disorders'' and was the inaugural president of the International Society fo ...

, Paul H. Blaney, Roger D. Davis (1999)
p. 82
/ref> Another name for injury phobia is traumatophobia, from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

τραῦμα (''trauma''), "wound, hurt" and φόβος (''phobos''), "fear". It is associated with BII (Blood-Injury-Injection) Phobia. Sufferers exhibit irrational or excessive anxiety and a desire to avoid specific feared objects and situations, to the point of avoiding potentially life-saving medical procedures. According to one study, it is most common in females. What sets injury phobia apart is that it is when a person is exposed to blood, an injury, or an injection, they begin to experience extreme sensations of terror, such as breathlessness; excessive sweating; dry mouth; feeling sick; shaking; heart palpitations; inability to speak or think clearly; fear of dying, going mad, or losing control; a sensation of detachment from reality; or a full blown anxiety attack. Notably, dental phobia is distinct from traumatophobia. The treatments that are available are mostly behavioral and cognitive therapies, the most common being behavioral. One method of behavioral therapy for traumatophobia is to expose the client to the stimuli, in this case being exposure to blood, injury, and injections, and repeat the process until the client’s reactions are less and/or cured. Hypnotherapy is also an option.

References

{{Reflist Phobias

See also

References