Fear of needles case. The following are some of the treatments that have been shown to be effective in some specific cases. Fear of needles Fear of needles, known in medical literature as needle phobia, is the extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. It is occasionally referred to as "aichmophobia" or "belonephobia", although these terms may also refer to a more general fear of sharply pointed objects. It has also been referred to as "trypanophobia", although the origin and proper usage of that term is highly controversial. The condition was officially recognized in 1994 in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and
Fear which in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) can be a freeze response or paralysis. In humans and animals, fear is modulated by the process of cognition and learning. Thus fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear is called a phobia. Psychologists such as John B. Watson, Robert Plutchik, and Paul Ekman have suggested that there is only a small set of basic or innate emotions and that fear is one of them. This hypothesized set includes such emotions as acute stress reaction, anger, angst, anxiety, fright, horror, joy, panic, and sadness.