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Abstract

A treatment outcome study was conducted to evaluate change in death anxiety as a result of systematic desensitization, relaxation training, and no intervention. Dependent measures included two paper-and-pencil tests of death anxiety, Feifel's CWIT, a behavioral measure of communication with simulated patients, and demographic variables. The measures were given pre, post, and five months following intervention. Both the desensitization and relaxation groups were more effective than no treatment and were more effective than didactic or short term interventions reviewed in the literature. Discussion is focused on the need for improvement of available dependent measures of death anxiety and development of adequate behavioral measurement scales before further outcome research becomes meaningful.

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A Behavioral Intervention for Death Anxiety in Nurses

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